Step away from the pizza

Or, taking back control. I think most people reach a point in the lives where they feel completely out of control. For lots of us military wives, that lack of control normally connects to our husbands’ jobs. We can’t stop them from going to the field, on TDY, or deploying. Trust me, if we could, we would.

I tend to be a rather controlling person. My readers who know me in real life might be laughing as this is an enormous understatement. I like being able to manage what is going on. Clearly, growing up an Air Force brat triggered some need to control everything all of the time. My twisted sense of logic then urged me to marry a man in the Army during a war. I’m rambling. Right. Back on track.

But this lack of control can send me spiraling into a bad place when things don’t go my way. Last fall was a perfect example of this. I was making some progress (mainly, not gaining weight) until we found out Mac was deploying again. Then it was a slippery slope, and I packed on around 10 pounds between then and when he left in January.

I realized then that I could be unhappy about everything in my life. My husband just left (again), I was back working retail, I was fat, blah blah blah. But I decided to do something about it. My paychecks are going to savings or paying off my loans. And I made the choice to lose weight and to lose it for good. That started with small choices. Right after Mac left, the NFL playoffs started. We were ordering pizza every week. My first battle was here. I can easily eat four slices of pizza without any effort. So I stopped myself and only ate two. I made sure to stock up on Lean Cuisines and Smart Ones for work and allowed myself one cheat meal a week. Those first few steps (and weeks) can be a challenge, but the results you see definitely make it worth the sacrifices.

Did any of y’all have a moment when you decided to change for good? What caused it?