What happens in Vegas
I guess what happened in Vegas isn’t going to stay in Vegas based on today’s post. And I’m completely ok with that, in this particular instance. Besides, I was there by myself so there’s no one else to tell this story but me! I still say be careful who you go to Vegas with, make sure they know how to keep a secret. 😉 I believe that some of life’s lessons are meant to be shared, otherwise you’ve missed the point, so I’m writing today’s posting in order to share my journey in the hopes that it might help or inspire someone else.
As I mentioned, I traveled to Vegas on a solo trip back in March of 2013, about two weeks after having unexpected gallbladder surgery. I had a sweet room in the middle of the strip at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, on a quiet, upper floor with a nice view of the strip. Well, quiet except for the really friendly, really funny drunk guys posted up outside my room one morning. They couldn’t find their room keys so they decided to cop a squat on the floor and discuss their dilemma using drunk person logic, but that’s a story for a different post. 🙂 Oh no wait, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right?
This was my first trip to Vegas, and although I’m not a gambler, it had been on my “bucket list” for quite some time. I have to admit I’ve had several opportunities to visit, because I had a good friend that was stationed at Nellis Air Force base for several years, but I just never made it out there (thanks anyway for the invites ‘Big Daddy!’). Since I’m not a gambler, the only things on my agenda were: people watching, checking out other hotels, catching a show, doing a little shopping, and taking a trip to the Grand Canyon with a quick stop over at the Hoover Dam.
Now I’d heard that much like that little disclaimer on the side view mirrors on your car, the hotels in Vegas appear a lot closer than they really are, and that proved to be a very true statement. Not a problem, however, because I’d started walking daily several weeks prior as part of a half-hearted commitment to become a healthier me. I promised myself I’d walk everywhere in Vegas, and I did, and my reward for doing so (because I wasn’t in the best of shape) was at the end of the day I got to drop a fizzy bath bomb in the huge two person bathtub in my room and take a long, relaxing, luxurious soak.
Now the bathrooms in this hotel are a little different than most in that they have double doors that open outwards. Imagine the closet doors with the slats that look like blinds, if you will, that open outwards towards the entryway of the room. And just outside of those double doors was a huge, completely accurate, non-fun house illusion-type mirror. And that mirror aligned perfectly with the large, oversized bathtub. So I guess it was the second or third night I was there, and I was running bath water and standing in the tub, kicking the water around and getting my skin acclimated to the heat of it. The bathroom doors were open, because I was alone in the room, and even if I wasn’t, I’m not exactly shy. 🙂 I caught a glimpse of myself in that mirror, and I did not recognize the person staring back at me. Now you might ask if I have an aversion to mirrors (I don’t), or if I don’t have mirrors in my home (I do). But at that moment, I took a good, long, honest look at myself and I was disgusted by what I saw. How in the hell did I get so far away from the person I used to be?
When I say I didn’t recognize myself, I don’t only mean physically, I mean I didn’t even recognize the eyes staring back at me. Where was the vibrant, fun-loving, considerably smaller woman I used to be, who enjoyed working out several times a week and staying in shape? This would be wakeup call number one, but there was a second wakeup call lurking just around the corner to pimp smack me in the face.
Remember I said the Grand Canyon was on my list of things to do? Well I booked a Grand Canyon Walking Tour through a company called Grand Adventures (whom I’d highly recommend by the way). I did my research before hand, knowing, as I said, I was not in the best of shape, and the website said it had a hiker rating of 3 out of 10. Now I had zero experience with “hiker ratings” but I am an intelligent woman who said to herself, “how bad could that be?” Not only that, but if you click on that link (go ahead, I’ll wait, it opens in a new window), in the middle of the page you’ll see the cutest picture of an “older couple” walking along the trail, one of whom is even walking with a cane. So again I say, how bad could it be?
Well for someone who is in relatively decent shape, or who is relatively active and not a complete couch potato, it’s a walk in the park (ha! see what I did there?). But for someone carrying way too much extra body weight, who started walking relatively flat land a few weeks prior to her trip, some of those inclines liked to killed me. I remember looking at another woman on the tour with me, who was also carrying some extra weight, as she struggled to catch her breath alongside me while we walked up an incline. She said to me, between gasps, “if this doesn’t make me want to lose weight, I don’t know what will.” The exact same thoughts were going through my mind. Here I was at one of the seven natural wonders of the world, gasping for air like a fish out of water instead of standing tall and enjoying the view.
Fast forward a year and a month later, and I’m down nearly 60 pounds and four dress sizes, teetering on losing one more real soon (just in time for summer). I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m no less proud of the progress I’ve made. And I keep things in perspective by telling myself I’m not where I used to be (and I’m never going back there, I’ve worked too hard).
The reason why I gained the weight? There are several, and maybe I’ll blog about it some other time, but let’s just say I lost sight of myself, my goals, and what I wanted out of life.
How did I do it? I lost the weight by eating less, eating healthier, making better choices, incorporating small changes over time, not depriving myself, and exercising. And I mean dripping with sweat, gasping for breath, doing things I hate like burpees, squats, and lunges type exercising, at least five times a week (I work out six days now). One thing I’ve learned are the exercises and machines you hate the most are typically what work the best, because they stretch you beyond your comfort zone (mentally and literally).
There were/are no diets/pills/powders/shakes/diet food involved, it’s been 100% hard work and dedication to making a permanent lifestyle change.
I’ll say this as well, if you’re not willing to do the really difficult mental work in order to dig down and find the true root cause of the problem, you’re wasting your time and the weight will be back before you know it. You truly have to find what works for you.
My children were also a big motivation to lose the weight, but ultimately I started this journey for myself, because I realized just how much I love me. And what I saw in the mirror that day is not how you treat someone you love. 🙂
Spilling my own Vegas secrets,
Angela
