My Journey With Weight Loss – Keeping Going

I got on the treadmill this morning to do my first workout. It’s an interval training day so I did the first interval and thought, I really don’t want to do this today. I still walked for 1 1/2 hours and then walked the dog so by 9:30am I had walked 6 miles and for 2.25 hours. So the day wasn’t really lost and I was was proud that I kept moving. Then I went to do my afternoon workout so got on the treadmill again. I thought, wait a minute, for the past 6 weeks you have done your interval training 3 times a week without fail, why would you want to wreck that? I did my interval training and at the end of that workout I felt pretty good about myself.

But I have done this for nearly 10 months and some ask me how I can stick to it like this. Let me be clear, it’s ok to occasionally give yourself a mental and physical break. Yes, there have been times that I have said I’m taking a couple days off and I do. Except when I do that I commit to myself what the break will look like and when I will get back to it. I have managed every time to do exactly what I committed to. You need to recognize that this is hard work and sometimes regrouping gives you that resolve to move forward. That combined with celebrating the accomplishments has given me motivation. When I reach a goal, and that can be weight loss, dress size or workout achievements, I brag about it. I use that amazing network of people that I have to lift me up and encourage me to keep going and I have to say it works. So celebrate your accomplishments and get your network to celebrate with you (of course in today’s world celebrating tends to be virtual).

That’s the easy part, it is the disappointments that can be hard. Really, when you have done everything right and that scale goes up it can be devastating. When I had to take a few weeks off because of my repetitive strain injury I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. But you know what? I worked through it. Yes there will be disappointments so get yourself mentally prepared for them. What I now do is when something upsets my journey I look back at what I have accomplished and use it to keep me positive. I refuse to let disappointments derail me and quite frankly the accomplishments are so much bigger than those small bumps in the road.

A final note, I was asked today how much water I drink each day. Now I am not someone who likes drinking water so I find other healthy fluids to make sure my intake is a minimum of 64 ounces a day. Yes, 24 of those ounces are water but I also drink decaf coffee and tea as well as herbal tea (I avoid caffeine whenever possible but I still love my coffee). This fluid intake keeps me well hydrated and works for me. You may find you require more fluids (or maybe even less) and you might be ok with keeping it to water. Do what works best for your body just make sure you are listening to what it tells you.