My Journey With Health And Fitness – Taking Responsibility

I got up this morning to head to the gym and realized it was once again freezing so I knew I was going to be walking on the treadmill. I decided to do a 1 1/2 hour workout on the treadmill, take a 15 minute break then do another 1 1/2 hour workout. I opted to turn on a Christmas movie while I was on the dreaded beast (I picked Die Hard) but seriously I hated it so much that for my 2nd walk I just simply bundled up and went outside for a walk. Not sure how it will go tomorrow as it is supposed to be raining but I am sure hoping I can get at least 1 walk outdoors done.

My husband keeps thinking I am blaming him every time I say that once he retired in April and moved home full time I started to gain weight. Now let’s be clear, in a little over a year after he came home I gained back an embarrassing amount of weight. Now that I am so close to being back to my ideal weight I need to publicly take responsibility for what happened.

At the end of 2020, still in the pandemic, I had managed to lose 82 lbs and would go on within a few more months to lose another 20 lbs. I managed to maintain that weight for another year by being very dedicated to my routine. But then my husband came home and it became easy to go back to old habits. And so, I started snacking on foods I shouldn’t, I began regularly eating less than healthy foods and I cut back on my workouts. Now don’t get me wrong, I still did something every day but it certainly wasn’t to the level that I had done in the previous 2 years.

I want to be clear, it really had nothing to do with my husband coming home, it was me getting complacent. I knew exactly what the impact of what I was doing would be but I kept telling myself I would get back in line the next month. But that next month would come and I would push the needed changes to the next month until more than a year later I was frustrated with what I had let happen.

As I have come down this path for a 2nd time I remind myself of what my trainer said, this is not a 1 night stand it is a long term relationship. I have made myself stop thinking about what I get to stop doing once I am back to my goal weight and rather am thinking about the things I have learned in the past 6 months and which of those things I really need to keep to help me maintain this weight and more importantly this amazing fitness level I have reached. This time I plan to do everything possible to maintain this level though I do admit, I won’t be working out 4-5 hours a day.

I have never blamed my husband for what happened with me after he retired, in reflection absolutely all of it was my responsibility. Now I just have to ensure I have learned from that experience and I keep moving forward down that path of health and fitness.