Day 275

Pretty neat, huh?

The past five months have certainly been crazy. It sounds so cliche, but my whole life has changed.

In the fall of last year someone from the local Chamber of Commerce pointed out one of the businesses they'd recently signed as members and suggested that we would like knowing each other. She told us, "They are health coaches, they help people lose weight by eating...or something like that, I guess."  Outwardly, I got excited. I knew the value of losing weight and getting healthier, so anyone who was actually doing it was doing a good thing! But inwardly, I rolled my eyes. I heard "health coach" as "expensive personal trainer" and my first honest thought about it was "oh...one of those."

I was biased. Obviously.

I'd just spent so much time trying and trying again at everything I could think of with a semi-reasonable set of rules at a semi-reasonable price. I wanted, desperately, to lose the extra weight I'd been storing up since 4th grade, but nothing had worked. When this conversation happened, I'd just given up on yet another attempt...the one that started this blog, actually. I was clinging to the hope that maybe I just needed to learn to accept myself the way I was and then everything would be OK, but I'd lost hope of actually getting better.

I tucked the business name in a mental file somewhere and otherwise discarded the whole conversation.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we were invited to someone's pre-Thanksgiving party, where we were introduced to a Ken-and-Barbie type of couple with big personalities. They both looked like they either had really hit the gene pool jackpot, or they probably spent a lot of time in weight lifting clubs and day spa salons. I didn't like them (sorry, guys!). In fact, I didn't like them so much that I had to consciously remind myself not to sneer at them. They were just too perfect.

Once again, I was seeing things through my bias.

When you've spent the majority of your life being fat, you learn to hate people who make you feel bad about that just by being in the room. Ken and Barbie did that for me, like a shining example of all the ways I wasn't measuring up to where I thought I should probably be.

Fortunately my husband wasn't held back by any such bias! He struck up a conversation with Ken and Barbie and it turned out (as it usually does) that they were awesome people. Ken explained that what they actually do as health coaches is help people establish the kinds of life-long habits that will help them obtain and maintain a happy, healthy lifestyle. It sounded less like everything else that I had tried than what our friend said it was. But I still wasn't ready to receive what they had to offer. I still had this idea that "healthy" and "preachy, extremist, crazy person who eats vegetables" were the same thing.

In December we ran into Ken and Barbie again at a chamber event and had a pretty interesting conversation with them about - guess what - healthy habits. With New Year's Resolution season just around the corner I was more open to the idea of making changes. I figured I'd give it a go with everyone else and just see what happened. I'd found a buddy to work out with (you may remember me talking about her) and I thought I was committed to doing what I thought I knew I was supposed to do.

Out of curiosity, and more than a little desperation, I started working with Trainer K and I mixed in a few of those tips that Barbie had mentioned.

As you know, within two weeks I had stopped working with Trainer K. Between her career move and my workout injury, I was just...done. Again.

Thank God for my husband!

He decided to try engaging Ken and Barbie as our coaches. Five months later...nothing is the same. It's taken a lot of persistence (and a lot of my husband telling me "no") but I'm a third of the way to my goal! The changes have been so simple - though not always exactly easy - and I think the progress really speaks for itself.

Pretty neat, huh?