New year brings new goal to lose weight | THE MOM STOP

It’s the time of year for new beginnings, new hope, new commitments — and new resolutions.

I generally try to avoid New Year’s resolutions, because so often they aren’t kept. They start with seemingly good intentions to start the year, such as resolutions to drink less Diet Coke (I don’t drink coffee so I have to get my caffeine somewhere) or to work out more or to be more patient and mentally present with my kids. But I find that my resolutions are quickly forgotten or put to the back burner once school starts back and kids’ activities for the spring hit full swing.

Last year, I made a non-resolution New Year’s resolution to be more grateful in my life. Inspired by a necklace that my sister gave me for Christmas last year that had the word “grateful” engraved on it in our late father’s handwriting.

I’ve worn the necklace constantly, not taking it off. The necklace serves as a reminder to be grateful when life gets difficult or stressful, or when I can’t quite see the light at the end of the tunnel. As my father often told me: it takes an "attitude for gratitude" to cope with life.

When you are grateful for the positive things that you have in your life, it puts things that are negative in proper perspective. The difficult times don’t seem so insurmountable when looking through a glass of optimism.

That optimism has helped me take on some goals in recent months that frankly, for the last several years, have seemed impossible. I'm talking specifically about my weight.

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I am grateful that at 6 feet tall, I am able to hide any weight gain better than many shorter people. An extra 10 or 20 or even 30 pounds doesn’t mean I can’t wear the same size clothes. Like a lot of moms, I gained weight after childbirth and after five pregnancies in six years, resulting in three healthy children — the baby weight didn’t really go away. When you are a mom of three young children, your personal needs and health often go on the back burner to everything else.

But I’m not sure I can call it “baby weight” when my youngest child is in second grade. And there was additional gains, too. There was the 15 pounds of “my dad died” weight that I gained in the year after my dad unexpectedly passed away. And then the pandemic immediately following didn’t quite help, as I gained another 30 pounds while working and educating my kids at home.

I knew I needed to lose weight, to get back to my “healthy adult” size, since I didn’t feel like myself. Perhaps I hadn’t in years. But I also knew that I needed motivation to get there, and that motivation was going to be hard to find.

It was during a doctor’s appointment in October that I finally decided that it was time to get back to “me.”

Although I am grateful for the life I have, the new job I started last year, the health and happiness of my kids and the rest of the family — ultimately, I don’t recognize myself in the mirror. I want to stop hiding behind my kids in family photos, or avoid being in them at all. I don’t want to keep dressing with layers to hide the extra weight, or avoid stepping on the scale out of shame.

My moment of motivation finally arrived. And through a focus on what I’m eating, making sure I’m keeping active and monitoring from my doctor, I’m down 30 pounds in three months.

The pandemic weight is finally gone. But I know I still have a ways to go.

Losing weight is not my New Year’s resolution. It is my goal that I hope to continue to work toward this year. But much like taking on an “attitude for gratitude” was my goal for 2022, I am striving to make myself a priority for the first time in a very, very long time. I and working toward a healthier me in 2023 — and all that that entails — and being grateful in the process.

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: New year brings new goal to lose weight | THE MOM STOP