Staying Focused

Sometimes I find it difficult to stay focused on what is important, and to keep my mindset where it should be.  The most common example for me is in my weight loss process.  I have a tendency to focus on where I want to be, and how far I have to go to get there, instead of on how far I've come.  I spent 3 years in college eating crap and sitting on my butt and put on 60 pounds.  Yikes!  And I knew better.  I had worked hard in high school to drop some of my extra weight.  I was a little on the heavy side ever since middle school.  My parents are both overweight.  So I know that I am going to have to work extra hard to get rid of this.

One of my goals since I really faced up to what I had let myself become was to get back to my weight when I finished high school.  It's so funny now, because at that time I was JUST at the very top of the "healthy" weight range for my height.  I still felt like I was too big for my size and refused to wear tank tops or a two piece swimsuit.  Of course now I would give anything to be at 150 again :-)  And that's part of my problem - I keep focusing on that 150.

What I should focus on is where I am now.  When I started being serious about losing weight I was at my heaviest, at 210.  I'm now down to 180 as of yesterday morning.  180!  If I look at it from the 150 side I think gosh, I still have to lose 30 pounds.  But then I realized I'm halfway there!!  I already HAVE lost 30 pounds.  Sure, it's taken me 3 years and a lot of ups and downs and hard work.  But dang.  30 pounds.  That's something to be proud of!

Now I'm trying to change my attitude.  Instead of focusing on the 30 pounds to go I want to focus on getting in shape.  I love the active lifestyle everyone has here and I just can't keep up.  Like last weekend, a group of my friends invited me to go on a hiking weekend in the Alps in Italy.  And I didn't go simply because I know I can't keep up.  I hate that.  I'm missing out on fantastic things.

So I'm trying to have a positive outlook.  Dwell on where I've come from (being out of breath after walking up two flights of stairs) instead of how far away the finish is.  Not easy for sure...


Oh, and by the way, I chopped off my hair, and I love it :-)  Here is the result:

Too impatient...

Yeah so, I'm certainly not going to wait until I lose another 30 pounds to get a haircut. I'm already fed up with this crazy mop on my head and it's not even hot yet.  I also realized that I've been worried it would make me look fatter, but really I've lost the weight that was on my face, so it's pretty much an oval instead of a circle like it was.  So it would maybe even look better instead of weighing me down with this mess.

I've been collecting some pictures of things that I like so hopefully I can pick something out to bring.  Thought I'd put them up here for any comments or suggestions from my readers (all 2 of you - ha ha!).

I considered  getting this haircut at Christmas time but then decided I would try the long hair thing.

Not sure about this one, might be poofy with my thick hair.

This one might be better; obviously not blond!

Cute and summery, but I'd be afraid it would turn out mullet-y.

At least this model has thick hair...

Cute, though I won't have a team of professionals to style my hair...

My favorite, but not sure it would work since her hair is obviously thinner than mine.

And finally for laughs, a "makeover" I did on Torey's Mary Kay site (Casey's fault).

Any thoughts?  Or other suggestions?

April showers bring May.....showers??

It has been incredibly dreary here lately. Cold and misty rain every day, and for every day in the forecast. Yuck. I want the sun and warmth and dry weather back!!! It's also thrown a wrench in my biking to work for exercise plan. Since all I want to do on a cold rainy morning is stay in my bed for another few hours. But hopefully the sun will return soon and I can get to this biking thing!

We're also trying to resurrect the idea of the girl's soccer team here at PSI. Last year Lea (my office-mate) and I decided to get a bunch of girls together to play soccer for fun, at lunch or sometime. We don't want to join the guy's team because then you never get to do anything, just run around and watch them kick the ball. So far we've got 5 people (including us) plus another potential 4 or so. That would make a very nice 4-on-4 game. We just haven't found a place to play yet. But I'm sure we will.

So all in all things are looking pretty good. I've got a strange combination of laziness and cabin fever, but they will both pass as soon as the weather cheers up. I leave you with a song...

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, mister golden sun,
Please shine down on me....