Paper links to be exact. Once upon a diet I started a paper chain and added a link for every pound lost. It helped me really see the progress I was making. For some reason I just can't get a grasp on it without visual aides. I've carried around something that weighed the amount of weight I'd lost and that helps, but for a quick visual aid you just can't go wrong with a paper chain. That diet was sabotaged long ago and the links since thrown away, but a few months ago I had started another one. When all of my yo-yoing started I stopped paying much attention to said chain.
This evening I was working on reorganizing to make room for a roommate and noticed the sad and neglected paper chain hanging on the wall. I had stopped at 10 links and never bothered to update as I struggled with every pound. I wasn't wholly confident that I wouldn't just be taking links off again. I use colorful scrapbook paper cut into little 6 x 1/2 inch strips and staple them together to let the length speak volumes for my progress. When you only have a couple links it all seems kind of silly.
I pulled that little chain from the wall to move it to my bedroom, right next to my closet, so that every morning when I go to get dressed I am reminded of what it is I'm to accomplish for the day. Before hanging it up I decided it was time to update it. I should be down over 20 pounds by my next weigh in so I optimistically added another 10 links. After adding the last link, I picked it up off the desk and held it up. Wow. 20 pounds IS so much more impressive than 10. I hung it up and stepped back to look at it.
1 pound in the grand scheme of things seems like nothing. 1 pound is not going to get me to my goal fast enough. I always strive for the 3 or 4 pound losses because in my head THAT is progress. That is me getting to my end result. But look at that chain. It's riddled with 1 pound loss after 1 pound loss. Just a link at a time and now it's a couple feet, if not three feet, long. I have to stop fixating on the length of the journey and simply focus on the journey itself. If I can just take it one day at a time, one pound at a time, one meal at a time...I will get there.
This evening I was working on reorganizing to make room for a roommate and noticed the sad and neglected paper chain hanging on the wall. I had stopped at 10 links and never bothered to update as I struggled with every pound. I wasn't wholly confident that I wouldn't just be taking links off again. I use colorful scrapbook paper cut into little 6 x 1/2 inch strips and staple them together to let the length speak volumes for my progress. When you only have a couple links it all seems kind of silly.
I pulled that little chain from the wall to move it to my bedroom, right next to my closet, so that every morning when I go to get dressed I am reminded of what it is I'm to accomplish for the day. Before hanging it up I decided it was time to update it. I should be down over 20 pounds by my next weigh in so I optimistically added another 10 links. After adding the last link, I picked it up off the desk and held it up. Wow. 20 pounds IS so much more impressive than 10. I hung it up and stepped back to look at it.
1 pound in the grand scheme of things seems like nothing. 1 pound is not going to get me to my goal fast enough. I always strive for the 3 or 4 pound losses because in my head THAT is progress. That is me getting to my end result. But look at that chain. It's riddled with 1 pound loss after 1 pound loss. Just a link at a time and now it's a couple feet, if not three feet, long. I have to stop fixating on the length of the journey and simply focus on the journey itself. If I can just take it one day at a time, one pound at a time, one meal at a time...I will get there.
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