Or is that a poundstone?!
I preach “Weight Doesn’t Matter” a lot! I realize if you have extra weight and bad knees, weight does matter.
However, if all you’re after is fewer pounds of weight on those knees, you might make some decisions that will, in the long run, hurt you even worse.
If you “diet” and deprive yourself of calories to see the scales go down, but mess up your metabolism in the meantime, the metabolic mess you find yourself in years from now may make dealing with the knees seem like child’s play.
If you “diet” to lose the weight, but do nothing to rehab the knee and make it stronger, you may get around a little better…for awhile. But if you don’t help reverse some of the damage from the stress on your knees (or hips, or ankles, or feet…), you could end up in worse shape down the road.
As one who has never lost “weight” easily, it’s been pretty discouraging to do an eating plan, watching calories, to see not much loss. Had I understood then what I do now, I’d have measured! I do know I got into some smaller clothes, but my focus was on the weight loss (or lack thereof).
I’ve shared bits of my story before, but I’ll recap a bit on the weight. I lost 10 lbs. fairly quickly with T-Tapp, which thrilled me, after losing absolutely nothing since having my son four months before! And I mean….absolutely.nothing.nada.zip.zilch. I looked and weighed like I did the day before he was born!
I continued to lose, slowly, but I lost inches even faster! I got up to about 25 lbs. lost……then gained 10!!!! I was assured by one of the trainers on the forums (and I highly advise getting on the forums from time to time for encouragement, answers and new tweaks on moves) that if I was gaining weight, but losing inches, I was developing muscle!
That encouraged me…..for awhile!
Finally, getting tired of having my joy stolen by the dumb scales I started searching the forums for threads about weight. I ended up compiling them into a thread called Weight Doesn’t Matter. Worth a read if you find yourself tied to the scales!
I decided to only weigh every 6 weeks. I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but after awhile I noticed the nasty hold those things had on me was gone! I could actually laugh when I gained weight—but lost inches!!!
The reason I am sharing all this is to put my “milestones” in perspective. I am thrilled, don’t get me wrong! But, they wouldn’t mean nearly as much as they do now, with more toning and better health to go with them!
As of this past weekend, I have lost 50 lbs. since starting T-Tapp!
And, for the first time in 20+ years, I weigh what I did before I was expecting Susannah!
Those are good milestones, and yes, I’m happy….but I was more thrilled when I dropped another size a month ago! (That makes 9 sizes lost now!)
Keeping this in perspective–it took me 4 1/2 years to get to this point, and for the first 4+ years I had lost only 30 lbs.! It’s only been since I addressed some things in my eating 4 months ago the last 20 lbs. have come off. But—I have also stayed consistent with T-Tapp—which is as important to staying toned and getting healthy as losing “weight” is!
It is important to emphasize that optimum health is not achieved by losing “weight”. Shifting your focus from the number on the scale to the real factors of good health, such as improved mood, energy and vitality, is the way to accomplish a lifetime of balance and your ideal body composition.
~The Schwarzbein Principle, p. 230
I still have toning up to do, and I may regain some weight as I add starches back in (in moderation), but it will be my healthy weight. And even if I gain 10 lbs. back, but am toned and healthy–
That will be just fine!
Rejoice in those milestones…..but don’t get stuck there! There’s more energy and better health to be won!
(Stay tuned for next Tuesday—there will be a giveaway–but you’ll have to work for this one! )