NSV's I never thought I'd see
186.6lbs down in 1 year and 4 months, from a size 26/28 to an 8...but success is more than just numbers. NSV's are the true "winning moments" that are keeping me motivated while I strive for the last 20lbs to reach my goal and ensure I maintain after that.
•Crossing my legs
•Visible collar and hip bones
•Buying off the rack from any store I want, not just Torrid, in the regular clothes section
•People are nicer (no joke...call me crazy but now doors are held, people say hello and feels like they're more kind...just felt invisible when I was heavy)
•My fiancé can pick me up when we hug and I can sit on his lap for a cuddle without risking killing him
•Not worried about hiding a double chin in photos
•Not being embarrassed about being in full body photos in general, for years I was just a selfie from one angle
•When showing my photo ID having the person do a double take and say "That's you?!"
•Not being worried I won't fit or can't participate in activities (go karts, amusement rides, booth at a restaurant etc.)
•Feeling excited to see people (meeting new people but mostly seeing friends i haven't seen in a while. For a long time I isolated myself because I was so embarrassed of how I looked, especially when with my fiancé since I was over twice his size at one point. I projected and felt he was embarrassed to be with me even though he never was.)
•No seat belt extensions, fitting comfortably in a seat on an airplane and not feeling like the person next to me is resenting sitting next to a heavy person taking up their room
•Being able to take a bath in a standard size tub and every part of my body is in the water
•Showering is no longer exhausting (though I will say the extra skin is a bitch now but having that removed soon)
•Regular/standard size towels at hotels wrap all the way around my body (used to bring my own beach size towel)
•Being "overweight" according to my weightloss app and BMI charts vs "morbidly obese" (idgaf, its a win for me hahah)
•Not sleeping half the day away on weekends (far more energy, I'm up at 4am during the week for work and the weekends now I'm up by 8am ready to go)
•Taking stairs or just even walking through the mall without huffing and puffing
•Not feeling like an embarrassment to my children anymore (again, possibly projection but I was the biggest of the moms and felt like my kids must have been ashamed to have the "fat mom")
•Less issues with inflammation, fibromyalgia pain and overall feeling like I'm not in a body decades older than me
•Happy to wake up - this is a hard one...for a while I was beyond depressed and felt my life was hopeless being trapped in a body I had let get so far out of control there was no way to "fix it". The first thing I thought about each morning was "another day of struggle", although I never had any SI, I just wasn't enjoying life...I was alive but not living....and now I'm living like there's no tomorrow.
There's a ton more but for anyone who is struggling through this journey, stalled or focused only on the scale...stop!!There's so much more than those digits and I encourage you to make a list of your NSV's, either ones you've achieved or ones you are excited for, those will mean more than any number, I promise you!!