Saturday, February 1, 2014

Maintaining A Balance

Maintaining A Balance

As the days go by and my resolve remains strong, my biggest challenge hasn't been maintaining the integrity of my calorie budget.  My biggest challenge has been time management and maintaining a balance with my chosen methods of social media. I'm behind on my blog reading list and answering emails and messages. Returning support is very important to me. The support you give me is sincerely appreciated and I hope you know this, because it's an absolutely critical element of my success. I'll continue doing my best and finding a balance with my time and energy.

Sleep Issue Update: I return for a 2nd sleep study on February 14th at 8pm. This time will include using an adjustable machine the entire night in an effort to determine the optimal settings for my best rest. I'm looking forward to feeling rested again. Good rest, good sleep is a requirement for living the best life possible. The benefits go far beyond weight loss. It goes without saying, being exhausted dramatically and negatively effects everything along this road.  I think it's perfectly fitting that my sleep study is set for Valentines evening. For one, it's my late brother Shane's birthday and he always wanted what was best for me. Taking care of me is self-love. Getting this done and my sleep situation corrected is one of the most loving things I can do for myself.

Today marks three weeks of being committed and staying focused come what may. I still have 10 more days to wait before I weigh and that's perfect. My philosophy on weighing hasn't changed. Like many of my friends along this road, I've allowed the scale to wreak havoc on my emotions too many times. And I'm embracing the idea that this isn't about a number for me, it's about recovery. It's about getting back to a healthier existence. I will weigh monthly, mainly because I like statistics. But I'll be very careful and aware of how the numbers effect me, good or not as good.

The point is, if I'm maintaining a balance and taking care of me, then truly the scale takes care of itself.  The only time the scale has ever gone up is when I'm not properly taking care of me. And I'm doing my best to fully appreciate and accept that this isn't a quest to get back to 230. This isn't about simply hitting that mark. I've done that. This is about learning from my previous experiences and getting to a place where maintaining my personal balance with food and exercise is a constant in my life.  If I make that the goal, again-the weight will drop and I'll be healthier for the effort. Maintaining balance with everything life throws my way is the challenge.

Creating a support community of friends with like goals, experiences and understandings is critical. Sharing the tough times and asking for additional support is paramount. I attended a banquet and awards ceremony Thursday evening with my co-workers from Team Radio. Most of them remember my resolve and practices during my initial weight loss and all of them know where I am today and how I'm reclaiming my life at this point, so just having them there with me was good support and encouragement to make the best choices possible. To reinforce my strength and support, I offered up the challenge on facebook and vowed to "Live-Tweet" the dinner service from start to finish. I'm @SeanAAnderson on Twitter.  I know many of my friends on Facebook and several who read this blog, do not do Twitter and that's okay. Here's a replay of the evening in chronological order of tweets:





































During the course of this "Live-Tweeting," I received wonderful support from those following along as it happened. And I thank you very much!! The entire event was spectacular and the highlight of the evening was the broadcasting company I work for winning the business of the year award!

Walking to the parking lot afterward, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for a perfect event in so many ways. My support system was in place and worked beautifully. The most challenging part of the evening was seeing so many people from the community, many of these people cheered me on before and haven't laid eyes on me since I've regained.  Being okay with that and shutting down the inner voices of insecurity, guilt, shame and whatever other negative emotions get drummed up in a post-regain situation like this, was a blessing. Having a calm and peace in this dynamic is because I'm embracing me, all of me and I'm taking care of me in wonderful ways. I'm headed to a healthier version of me and I'm doing what needs to be done to get there. It's none of my business what anyone else thinks of me, good or bad, about where I am or what I looked like at this event. I'm gloriously me. And visiting the restroom, looking in the mirror and reminding myself of this was a part of the evening, twice. Besides, people are typically too busy worrying about themselves to notice others, at least not to the degree our brains would have us believe.

So much more I want to share here, but I'm out of time for now. I'm going to fix some brunch and get ready for a remote broadcast this afternoon.

I hope you'll follow along on Facebook, Twitter and My Fitness Pal too. I'm Seanaanderson on MFP.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful weekend,

My best always,

Strength,
Sean
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6 comments:

  1. CaronFebruary 1, 2014 at 4:34 PM

    That was fun getting to go out to dinner with you. You made great choices. Who needs giant balls of butter? Ha ha

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  2. divadFebruary 1, 2014 at 4:54 PM

    One of the reasons I stopped blogging, which was the start of my gaining, was that I felt a deep sense of obligation to the blog world. I knew there were unwritten rules I needed to follow regarding responding to comments, reading blogs and making comments etc. It became overwhelming and I couldn't keep up. By choosing not to blog, I no longer felt accountable and things went haywire...94 pounds haywire! I think it has to be balanced too. I am looking to find that this time round.

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  3. JulesFebruary 1, 2014 at 10:15 PM

    Hi Sean! Wow, you have iron man will power! You are tough... Don't know if I could resist but you did it! The results will pay off in a big way, you'll see! *Cheering from the sidelines* You go!!!

    Jules

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  4. AnneliFebruary 2, 2014 at 9:03 AM

    So proud of you!! Events like those are the #1 hardest thing for me to handle wisely. Thanks for the example!

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  5. 'Yellow Rose' JasmineFebruary 5, 2014 at 1:12 AM

    This was cool, to see how you did- step by step- all evening. I'm really thinking about what you said about getting to 'healthy'. At one point I was slightly thinner than the number I have maintained for the last three years and it got me a lot of attention for how skinny I was. However, I was not yet truly healthy. That has had a lot more to do with taking time for me and getting to the best me I can be- not a smaller number on the scale.
    Keep going- you've got this, for all the right reasons.

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  6. AmelieMarch 14, 2014 at 5:04 AM

    This is very interesting and wonderful. Thank you

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