It Is My Birthday*

Two years ago, I road to my birthday lunch with my boss.  We had a conversation about how birthdays are good times to evaluate your life, and set big goals for the future.  She encouraged me to think about it and see if there was anything I wanted to do or learn before my 30th birthday and then, to actually do it. Quite good advice, really.

At the time I mentioned that I wanted to learn to play the guitar and go skydiving.  Following that conversation I got a guitar on loan from my sister by way of my parents who were storing it and decided to try and use YouTube to teach myself how to play.  That lasted a few weeks, when I remembered that I have tried to play more than one instrument in the past, always to mediocre results.  My inability to learn to play instruments well is partially due to a lack of musical skill and partially due to an inherent laziness when it comes to practice. So I accepted the fact that I will never play the guitar, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

However, going skydiving was really tied to something bigger, because skydiving has a weight limit and I was over that weight limit by quite a lot.  I wanted to lose weight, to be a different person physically, but I was too scared to say that out loud. It was too big of a goal to accomplish by my 30th and I had tried and failed so many times in the past.  

I stewed over that conversation most of the summer, and by July, with the encouragement of my friend Abi, I decided to try again.  Now it's two years later. I am different physically. I can swim farther, jump higher, and bike and run period.  I've lost and never found again the first 90 pounds.  

So today, on my 31st birthday, I'm setting a goal to be done with my weight loss before I turn 32.  I'm readjusting my thinking after meeting with my doctor last week.  I'm no longer shooting for 100 pounds, but 125.  I think I'm about 30-35 pounds from that goal.  That doesn't sound like a lot after losing 90, but I know it will be a long, tough road. It seems to get harder, the more I lose.

So two years and 90 pounds later, I'm finally going skydiving. Next Sunday, me and my friend Cindy will jump out of a perfectly good aircraft, strapped to the front of seasoned experts (it's called tandem skydiving and is perfectly safe).  I had wanted to use skydiving as my big reward for reaching my big goal of 100 pounds lost, but I'm finally realizing that even without achieving that goal (yet), I've still achieved so much.  It's okay that I've stalled out a bit in the weight loss department, as long as I keep pressing on towards the goal.

PS I bought myself a cookie cake to celebrate with today. This is one of my all-time favorite desserts, but having a whole cookie cake in my house can be disastrous, so I'm taking it to lunch with friends. I made myself accountable by letting a friend know in advance that I had it and needed to bring it to lunch. It's good to celebrate, but there's no need to go overboard. :)


*It is a statement of fact. It's not like I cured cancer or anything. (This is a quote from the television show "The Office.")