My Journey With Health And Fitness – No Excuses

Yesterday I was out for a walk with the seniors’ walking group that I lead. They are all aware that I am doing a 6 week bootcamp and are looking forward to hearing how it all turns out in the end. While we were walking yesterday one of them noted that my butt is getting smaller. It was nice to hear that because I know I have worked hard for the past 2 weeks and while I am noticing some differences it was uplifting to have someone else validate it.

I also received an email from my bootcamp liaison yesterday saying she had just seen my weekly check-in forms and that I am doing excellent. Now she only sees things like how many classes I am attending and if I am keeping to my calorie goal but has no idea what else I am doing. I told her that currently I am walking a minimum of 10 km every day and she marveled at how I was able to do this given I had been recovering from COVID. I explained my mantra is no excuses and I am sticking with that until I meet my fitness and weight goals.

I came to realize that I had lost that mantra. When I first got serious about getting healthy and fit I was diligent. Every day I worked at improving my fitness and I was really cognizant of what I was eating. But then things changed. The pandemic bubble that I had been living in for 2 years burst and life started getting back to normal. My husband retired and moved home permanently which gave me a great excuse to go back to some bad eating habits. Last September I twisted my ankle a bit and so that gave me a reason not to work as hard. And while the beginning of the year I vowed to get back on track, it didn’t really happen.

Finding this bootcamp has taken me back to where I was when I started on this journey, I really want to do it. Every day I review my stats for the day (calories in, calories burned, time in zone minutes, distance traveled and number of steps) and I find myself excited to do the same tomorrow. I am back to planning what each day will look like including what I will be eating and how I will get all my workouts done. I have had to be flexible owing to COVID and the health emergency with my brother but really, in 2 weeks I have missed 1 day where I didn’t exceed all of my goals. This time I know if I let up even a little I can end up back where I was 3 1/2 years ago and I don’t want to be there ever again.

This all means, no excuses, I can find a way to do this every day. More importantly, I can find a way to keep myself excited about what I am doing and those 2 things are going to get me to my goals.