Hopefully, you know, by now, that this blog is not as much about weight loss as it is about gaining health. In light of that, I celebrate what many in the diet world call “NSV” — or Non-Scale Victory.

In my opinion, NSVs are more important than actual weight loss stats. A few I’ve had over the last couple of months:

• I feared my knee replacement surgery might be delayed because of elevated blood pressure. To my surprise, my blood pressure was entirely in normal ranges, and obviously, I had surgery.
• 

  Part of my mile walk yesterday.

  Before surgery, the farthest I managed to walk in one stretch was about a mile. It took me about a year to get to that point. Roughly seven weeks after surgery, I woke up yesterday and walked a mile.

• I’ve got plenty of really great goals for the rest of this year. I’ve got a lot of work on my plate, a dear friend and I are taking a trip and we’re having a blast planning it, another great friend and I will keep our annual trek to a cabin at the lake to write (this annual tradition has become one of my favorite times), my husband and I are planning to camp during Thanksgiving break, I have a concert to rehearse for, and a bunch of events strewn out over the course of the fall. And it’s only July. There was a day not long ago when I wouldn’t really have been able to consider most of these things.
• Thanks to working my way down through clothing I have kept until it fit, I’ve now got more drawer and closet space than I’ve ever had.
• People who don’t know my history with weight actually treat me like a normal person. There is a huge difference in how people treat the morbidly obese from the merely overweight, and at some point, I’ve crossed into normal territory. (Physically, if never mentally!)
• I no longer feel as if I must explain myself to people that don’t know I spent so much of my life as a morbidly obese and physically limited person. For one thing, if they don’t know, that’s fine with me; I am who I am regardless of my physical appearance. For another, it’s really no one’s business unless, for instance, there’s a medical reason to discuss it. I rather like walking through life as a normal person.
• Back when I lost weight years ago, I felt like I had a point to prove; and not just to other people, to show them they were wrong about me, but to myself. I never quite lost the idea that I was different from everyone else. I don’t know that I ever will entirely lose that; it’s important that I always carry the lessons I’ve learned with me, but I don’t have so much of a chip on my shoulder these days. I’m much more concerned with my own journey and not so concerned with what other people think.
• Better clothes. 😛

It’s easy to get lost in physical stats; how much weight, how many inches, how big of a drop in clothing size. The diet “experts” will use these as indicators of success, but the longer I am on this journey, the more solidly I believe that this process is about the changes made and the resulting improvement in quality of life. After all, no one knows my weight, how big my waist is, or what size I wear, unless I tell them. But just about everyone can tell a difference in desire, attitude, and ability.

This journey should be about enjoying life as a healthier person, looking toward the future, and less about self-flogging over small goals not met in this moment. It does you no good to physically improve but mentally slide backward or become obsessed. With effort, change will come.