So for those of you who have never been on a diet, the concept of non-scale victories may be foreign to you. Basically, you want to celebrate good things going on with your program, that do not relate to your weight fluctuation or any sort of measurement. So I used to think that was just a way for people to continue to brag on themselves and it was ANNOYING. I'd be like "yeah, we can see that your face is thinner, how can you not?" or "realistically you're never going to wear your wedding dress again, so who cares if you can fit in it again after 20 years." I think you get the idea.
Well, you probably get the idea for sure- the one that I was bitter and turned my nose up to others success. So I say that to give you permission to have the same attitude if you'd like because I'm about to bust out some non-scale victories for y'all....
1) Ok. So last week was the 7th anniversary of my dad's death. Every year, we had chosen to remember him by celebrating with donuts. Why donuts? Well, he loved them. As I sit here, I was just thinking about my favorite ones he would get at the grocery store... they were boxed by some brand.. I'm thinking a yellow box, cake donut with chocolate on top. But more of a hardened chocolate. I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out the brand online to no avail..someone will come through and help me... or perhaps they still sell them at Tysen's in Demotte and I'll take a look around the next time I'm there. But all that to say... I'm not sure I remember a day without donuts in our house. We know good donuts in our family. I mean, our kindergarten field trip was to the local bakery to watch donuts being made. The obsession started early. (That bakery sat where Schnicks currently is for those of you who have had the chance to visit the booming metropolis of Wheatfield, IN. ) So July 26th, I find myself in Denver. And having breakfast with friends at the Denver Biscuit Company in this lovely shopping plaza called Stanley Marketplace. And there just happens to be a donut shoppe there called Glazed and Confused too. (I must admit, being in Colorado where pot is now legal, I wasn't 100% convinced this was a donut shoppe by its name.) I avoid the biscuits at the breakfast location. But boy, those donuts looked good. I think we walked by the shoppe at least 3 times. My friend had offered to split one with me so I wouldn't eat the whole thing, but could still celebrate. So we walked by again. And again. But here's the funny thing... go to their website... http://www.gcdonuts.com/ . Do you see it? "Not your Daddy's Donuts". And that was enough. I didn't have a donut that day. (Had I, I would have opted for the root beer float donut though. ) It was that simple. Those weren't my dad's donuts. Non-scale victory. Instead.. I watched the Cubs that night. He liked them too....
2) Ok, so also while in Denver, I was there to attend a conference. Most of the summer I have been wearing skirts and dresses to work- they are comfortable, don't require ironing, and just overall easy to wear. But for this conference, I thought I might want to step up my game and bust out some of my dress pants and nicer tops. So I packed and off I went. What I tell you in the following is 100% truth... For three days of the conference, I was in a state of bewilderment. Every time I would wear a pair of the dress pants, I would be so perplexed as to why they seemed to be too long. For THREE DAYS, I convinced myself that it was because I was wearing summer shoes with them vs. the ones I might normally wear in the winter and that's why my pants seemed so long. These shoes must have shorter heels than what I normally wear, right? On day three, it FINALLY occurred to me. My pants weren't too long, my waist was smaller and not able to hold the pants up anymore. This is the honest truth. Three days. And then it finally occurred to me that my pants might just not fit me anymore. I had hiked them up multiple times each day. It just never occurred to me as to why. And I don't do belts- (maybe that will get its own blog posting someday) so my pants were left to my hips and bootie to provide structure. And we can tell how well that worked.
So anyway... there are two non-scale victories. Be Jealous. Be Annoyed. Be Humored.
