My Journey With Weight Loss – A Changing Mindset

I thought I would start with an update on the beach beaver (as I fondly have named him). Turns out some caring people were concerned as really, beavers don’t hang out at the beach and reached out to find help for him. Two RCMP officers rescued him and took him to a local wildlife rescue centre. It was determined he was about 2 years old making him a teenager in beaver years. He had also overdosed on salt water which made his liver and kidney functions deteriorate. Fortunately he should fully recover and when that happens they will find a safe place to release him back into the wild.

Today was a walk day. Even though it is Saturday I still get up at 5am and hit the road by 6am. It was a little chilly this morning and I wondered if I should have worn a heavier jacket as opposed to my running jacket. Still I walked at a brisk pace to make sure my heart rate was where it needed to be. However, about 1/4 of the way into the walk I started feeling bad about the fact that I wasn’t running. Seriously, what the hell is happening to me?

To put this in perspective, I do some form of run training 5 days a week. There are 3 different runs which right now I do during the week, 5k, 8k and 18k. I then on 2 other days do my sprint training. This is a lot of running but still I couldn’t help think of walking today as somehow slacking off. I know it is not, I need this day for my body to get some recovery time but it was almost like that little voice in my head was telling me I need to work harder. I decided to shut it down because I don’t need to work harder, on top of all my runs I am doing a lot of walking each day. I am making myself even more fit each week which has always been the overall goal.

I realized that my mindset has changed in a couple ways. Firstly is the ability to stop doing the self criticism which for a long time I was so good at. Secondly, I no longer look for excuses not to work hard and instead question whether I should be doing more (again, I shouldn’t). I realized I want to work hard, I want to be the most fit that I can be. Most of all I always want to feel good about myself which really I do. Funny, I am now very attuned to the fact that I can not think of myself as physically lazy anymore. I really am becoming a runner.

One other thing I noticed on that brisk walk today (note there was a 2nd not so brisk walk as I am working on my husband’s walking skills but I will talk about that next week). This walk, which I did numerous times starting in the summer of 2020, used to take me 1.5 hrs. Today it was under an hour with my heart rate never peaking. Yep, I’ve come a very long way.