11 Things I Learned While Losing 11 Pounds.

1)????Public declaration and accountability are invaluable.??Especially when it gets tough.??My need to not fail in public is way stronger than my hunger.??Back when I ran the Marine Corps Marathon, I raised money for charity and announced to the world my intention.??That got me across the finish line. Same with this.

2)????You’re doing it wrong.??If you are public about what you are trying to accomplish… people have opinions.??I received tons of messages (public and private) about how I was doing it all wrong, how I could do it better or differently altogether.??Every message was sent with support and good intention.??It took work to trust myself.???What I was doing, was working for me, even if it wasn’t “the right way.”

3)????You will inspire people.??It’s crazy how many notes I have gotten and how many people have changed their health habits from me posting my scale every day.??I picked up some buddies along the way and now get to cheer them on.??We really are in this together.

4)????What got me from 170 to 165 was not going to get me to 162, and definitely not going to get me to 159.??The hill got steeper; the setbacks came faster.??Those last two pounds felt almost impossible.??Isn’t that a metaphor for almost everything???The good news, the practice from 170 to 162 built the muscle to get past 160.

5)????Commitment did this.??Not my diet.??Not the exercise.??Steve Chandler has an insightful distinction called “How to vs. Want to,” where he shows us it is the decision to do a thing that is the most important.??The “how to” will show itself once you commit.??I declared publicly, and decided to share my scale every day (I did not enjoy that at all) because I wanted this.??A switch flipped, commitment showed, and it happened.

6)????Commitment > Excuses:??My brother died in the middle of this journey.??Food is my comfort in dealing with tough emotion and it was no different with the monumental stress of that situation.??I had 4 business trips and 2 “fun” trips.??Thanksgiving was another speed bump.??Commitment to the process got me through.

7)????Commitment shows up when it shows up.??I have talked a good game for years. I’ve done juice cleanses, diet boxes, Keto, calorie counting, intermittent fasting, and I never got where I “said” I wanted to go.??One day I woke up, decided to do this, bought the scale, started posting.??The rest is history.??I could tell the commitment showed up when all those other times it had not.??Hint from Only 10s: if you are not doing a thing, and you say you want to do the thing, get honest with yourself.??No need to beat yourself up when it’s just not what you want at that moment (more in #10).?

8)????Process > Goal:??Yes, I had a goal of 160, but more importantly, I had a practice to stick to every day.??When I got stuck at +/- 162 the goal seemed impossible.??But my process did not.??I kept at it.?Tweaked it a bit here and there to get over the plateau.??Find a process you can stick to.??The goal will take care of itself.??

9)????Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.??Nope!??I don’t mean that the way you think.??It’s not about the vanity (though that is a welcome byproduct).??I felt that food/eating/weight were beyond me.??That they had control over me.??Finally doing the thing I said I wanted to do helped me out of my “victimhood.”?Feeling that “power” over something as simple as portions and feeling hunger has seeped into every other area of my life.?

10)?Inner work: I have done a ton of work on childhood, beliefs and trauma this past year.??I mean the ugly, painful, let’s not go there stuff.??I know that deep work had something to do with the miracle of this weight loss.??I was carrying around a lot, and was able to let it go.

11)?Feelings and Lying to myself:??I have always eaten healthy and exercised.??So much so that I thought this was my set weight.??But I was lying to myself about how much I ate and how much I snacked.??By a-lot!??It’s embarrassing how much I deceived myself.??When I dropped the snacking and the portions… the feelings came.??I ate to “full” to avoid a feeling. I can’t name it.??I just ate not to feel it.??I still feel it, and still can’t name it.??Watch out for the feelings when you drop an unhelpful habit.??Allow them.??There is freedom in the allowing.

Now, let’s see my commitment to maintaining.??