My Journey With Health And Fitness – No Excuses

Every once in a while I check my heart health on my Fitbit. For the longest time it has ranged between good and very good (for a woman my age which I wish it didn’t have to say). Today I had a look at it and was stunned that it is now showing in the excellent range (though still, for a woman my age). I know I have been working hard for the past 2 months but that is a significant indication that it is working.

Sunday I seriously didn’t want to go for a long walk. Over the previous 3 days I had done 2 8 km runs and a 10 km run and to say my legs were tired is a significant understatement. However, I got up before dawn and hit the road by 5:15am to get in a 2 hour walk. I then told myself as I plodded along that since it was Sunday if I got that walk in then I would quit for the day. Sounded good until I realized the last day when I hadn’t done at least 30k steps was June 26th. Of course by the end of the day I was at 31.5k steps.

This past year I seem to have become pretty good at finding excuses to let myself go. There was the twisted ankle, volunteer work, my business picking up, wanting to enjoy retirement with my husband, it’s too hot in Mexico to really workout, and the list goes on. I don’t know how I allowed myself to get back into that kind of head space but obviously I did. Not now and hopefully not ever again.

My family jokes that I am obsessed (ok, I might be a bit) but really it was joining the 6 week challenging and having someone else help me be accountable. It is really different when you have someone else following what you eat and what you weigh. It made me just want to prove that I can do this. And so, I am just not letting those excuses get into my head again, instead now I just shut them out and push through.

But you know what? I feel great again and all of this hard work is really starting to show. Yes, I spend a lot of time working out right now but I am looking down the road to when I can go back to just working on maintenance. Each week I keep telling myself, you got this and I know that I do.