Subtle changes

Over at my personal blog, I posted some "before" and "after" pictures of myself -- one from last fall and one taken just the other day. The transformation is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

While I'm enjoying the changing shape of my body, what I'm really grateful for is the subtle changes that I'm finding as I continue this journey, even though the Better U challenge is officially over.

I'm talking about things like:

• I went to the playground with my kids the other day. Instead of sitting on a bench watching them (as I would have before), I ran around, chasing my youngest, laughing while I was at it.
  
• My last trip to the movie theater found me sipping a Diet Coke and nothing else. No Twizzlers. No popcorn. No peanut M&Ms. That's a big savings of calories and money!
• I took my kids downtown to enjoy the Final Four festivities today and instead of driving around looking for the closest parking, I chose a free parking lot that was "only" a mile away from Lucas Oil Stadium.
  

There are still plenty of things I need to work on -- getting more strength training in my workouts, passing up sweets -- but I feel like many of these choices are becoming second nature for me. And that feels great!