Reflection

Well, it's the last day of 2013. This year started with an injury. It continued with a lot of personal and professional changes. And the last few weeks I was pretty sick, unable to do much of anything and pretty unfocused on my weight loss efforts and activity.

I like to take the last few days of each year and look back at what happened during the previous roughly 360+ days. I look back at all of the things I did and didn't accomplish over the last year. No, it is not an exercise is "Let's look at all of the ways I've failed." Instead, I like to look at where I can improve in the coming year.

Being a continuous work in progress allows me to always learn something new about myself and become more than I have been before.

First, the scale really didn't move at all. For someone who doesn't know me, he or she might think I am disappointed by this. While it is true that all Weight Watchers want the scale to move in a downward direction, and to deny this would be dishonest of me, I am not really disappointed this outcome.

My activity level took a huge hit at the beginning of the year and I had to make major changes in my activity routine as a result. I had to go to the gym, which I previously hated, but I found I liked it. I walked in the morning through Central Park. I tried the stationary bike (and realized I liked it a lot), the elliptical (I still don't like it but I didn't die after 2 minutes on it), and tried a few classes (and discovered I REALLY liked those).

I also experienced a lot of personal changes this year: moving (and living with a boy!!) and changing jobs are both pretty life changing and they shook up my routines and my life significantly and I'm still adjusting to both.

The science between weight loss is simple: burn more calories than you consume and you'll lose weight. However, anyone who has ever tried to lose weight and get healthy knows that whatever is going on in your noggin determines how successful you are.

Although I didn't really lose any weight this year, I did have some successes this year. Besides all of the uncharted waters I tread through this year (activity pun intended), the scale basically stayed the same this year. Yes, it means I didn't lose much weight, but more importantly I didn't gain what I had already lost. If you or anyone you know has lost weight and then regained most of if not all of it back (yes, I have been there), then you know how significant this is. If you haven't personally had that experience, then just trust me on this one.

I'm also proud that throughout the entire year, no matter how frustrated I got, I never thought about quitting Weight Watchers. In the past I would have (and did). But I know that as bad as it might have gotten and as frustrated as I was, I am still better off going to meetings and following as much as the plan as I mentally could handle at the time than not.

I just came back from my last WW meeting of 2013. I don't regret the decisions I've made this year (well, maybe a few, but not from a health perspective), but I am looking forward to what 2014 will bring. Here's to another 365 days of challenges and successes.