19 May 2011

Win, wins, winning or losing

Looking at the context of the current forefront of my 'journey,' I'm going to address my confusion about winning in regards to diet, exercise and really, life.


WIN
–verb (used without object)
1. to finish first in a race, contest, or the like.
2. to succeed by striving or effort: He applied for a scholarship and won.
3. to gain the victory; overcome an adversary: The home team won.


Clearly I understand the dictionary definition of win... I'm surprisingly bright!  But, after tooting my own horn for a moment I have to ask, what exactly constitutes a 'win' in my day-to-day journey?

- I have lost more than 41 pounds in 6 months: I know that this constitutes a win. 
- I have shrunk 2 sizes so far: I know that this is a definite win.
- I have reached out via twitter and blogging, to share what I have for so long feared. WIN! 
- I have let go of the two biggest stressors in my life: such a win! 
- I had mexican food today, had half the rice of usual, no sour cream, no chips! Kind of a win? 

I get it, I'm winning in many things...Right?

Today I didn't want to go to the gym. I was dragging. I was a little dehydrated, feeling sluggish after my burrito today (which I had allocated WW Points to and had chosen ingredients for carefully!), the list goes on.

I dragged myself to the gym, walking down 6 flights of stairs to get there. I stretched and then spent a whopping 11 minutes on the treadmill, stopping when I hit 100 calories.  I stretched and did some light weight-lifting and jumped on the elliptical for 15 minutes with a 3 minute cool down.  I started normally and then became really aggressive, which is different for me. I went as high as 12.5 miles per hour on the elliptical and burned 189 calories.

I will admit, getting to that speed and keeping my speed at more than 6.5mph for more than 10 minutes was a pretty big win for me, (I usually do 4-5mph steady for about 45 minutes).  I stretched and did a couple of minutes of additional weight-training after the 18-minute, 189 calorie stint on the elliptical, then I just sluggishly left.  I walked up 6 flights of stairs after my time at the gym and that felt like a small win. Was the whole gym trip a loss because I fell about 500 calories short of my usual hour?

How do you find WINs in your day-to-day life?  How do they keep you going?  What do you constitute a win?  Do you see yourself winning only when you lose 1 or more pounds in a week? Is .1 pound loss a win?  What do you call a loss?

2 comments:

  1. I win by getting closer to my weight loss goal every week. I work on building my confidence for the win. Every time i complete a training run, in preparation to run a half marathon, it's a win. The way I feel about myself now as compared to a year ago, that's a win! Great blog post! thx!

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  2. I love this! I'm so inspired by the fact that you're running a half marathon! That's a huge win!! Keep it up!!! Thanks for the comment!

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