My Journey With Weight Loss – Thinking of How Far I have Come

Yesterday I achieved a major accomplishment in my training, I started doing interval training on a hill. As I previously mentioned it is not the steep hill I have been walking up but still a pretty good one. As directed I did 4 3:30 minute intervals running up the hill and then walking back down. I actually sprinted the last 1/2 block because I was so excited that I had done it. What surprised me the most was that not only could I do this but that it wasn’t that hard.

Today for the first time I did my training on the promenade, 10 intervals of 3:30 minutes running and 1:30 minutes walking. Those 10 intervals took me from the east end of the promenade to the west end and back for a total of 2.5 miles. I started thinking about how far I have come in this last year. A year ago if someone had told me I would lose another 57 lbs I would have told them it wasn’t possible. If someone said I would be successfully training to run a 10k I would have fallen to the floor with laughter. Hell, if someone suggested that I would regularly walk 30k steps in a day or hike up Oxford hill I would have thought they were doing some pretty good chemicals but I am doing it. As I hit interval 8 today, breathing easily with my legs holding strong, I thought I have become fit and healthy. Truly I never saw that coming.

I started thinking about how I got here today. Remember, the original goal was to just walk 10k steps a day to relieve some of the boredom of the pandemic. I’ve come to realize that the healthier I got the more healthy I wanted to be. I think that is why I am working on the new goal of doing the Grouse Grind. I realized that every time I get to a goal I want more, I want to have a new finish line to cross so that I can keep going. But this morning as I ran along our beautiful bay I also realized that it is important to look back and see the footprints bringing me to where I am now and to take a moment and feel a sense of pride.

I guess the bottom line is that today I feel proud. I am proud of the weight I have lost, I am proud of how fit I have become, I am proud of how I have stuck with this no matter what. Most of all I am proud of how strong I am both physically and mentally.

I recommend that if you are on a similar journey take a moment to reflect on what you have accomplished. It has sure helped me to be motivated to achieve more.