Fitness Transformation: A Letter to Myself
To close off weight loss Wednesday I wanted to focus on progress. Too often we get caught up in all that we have yet to achieve when we don’t stop and look at where we come from. Fitness, weight loss, and nutrition are life long goals that should be ongoing. It is not something that you wake up one day at your goal weight and then stop because you have arrived NO! it is much harder. SO even if you are not there yet whether you loss 20lbs or 2lbs this letter goes out to you because TODAY you are steps closer to reaching your goal.
Dear “Old“ Me:
You are probably sitting there right now browsing the web Googling “How to loose 20lbs in 20 days” or researching quick weight loss diet plans. Its Wednesday and you planned on starting over again on Monday and feel successful up until this point: Your company is buying the lunch today and its Pizza. You justify that you have been good for 2 days and that you even lost 2lbs so what is a little pizza right? You savoir the delicious pizza and down 3 slices maybe even 4 with all the delicious veggies and extra cheese you can handle. Then back to your desk for a few hours, not as productive because your consumed by the “itis” and your too lazy to focus on anything else but how tired you are right now.
This exhaustion is only compounded as you sit in hours of traffic on your way home. You then begin to think about going to the gym, the way we all fantasize about winning the lottery “It would be nice but..” Remember the pizza shenanigans from earlier you muster up the energy and go to the gym. You will then run for maybe 1 mile then walk for a few and just when you begin to break a decent sweat you are off…“That was a smoldering 35minutes“, plus I know how that knee bothers you sometimes. You will then walk over to the crunch machine maybe try to do 75 crunches but stop at 50 and call it quits.
Back home for the evening you whip up sautéed chicken, mashed potatoes and a caesar salad. YUM. Between the stress and the short workout you have also whipped up quite a hunger and you not only eat one plate but have seconds. “Hey its healthy “, I know. You pick out your clothes for work and think “Damn I look good” not even realizing how tight your clothes are getting or that your favorite blouse no longer buttons. You settle into bed with your favorite 100 calorie snack pack and whatever is good on TV.
I know you will wake up beyond frustrated that the two pound weight loss you had is gone plus 1 more pound. I know you feel like giving up because you have tried every diet known to man and nothing is working. You cant stand to have your boyfriend spoon you and feel the tire around your waist. And sometimes when your alone and its quiet you think about the years of frustration trying to loose the same 30lbs since high school and you cry. I know its ok.
I am here to tell you that it gets better. You will wake up and decide one day to change your life. And beyond just a DIET, you will remove all the things in your life that bring anxiety and are making you unhappy it will take some time but you do it. You realize that truly being HEALTHY and FIT and at your GOAL WEIGHT is more then just eating good and going to the gym it is a complete lifestyle change. You reprogram everything you once knew and fill it with tools and knowledge that aid you in the long haul. I know it seems so far off but you will wear a size 6 and feel like a Million bucks. You will shed the unnecessary baggage that has been holding you back. More importantly, you will never forget why you live the way you live. Why you cant eat how all of your friends eat or why you train so hard for triathlons. And at this point it doesn't even feel like work because you feel so good.
You will come a long way, and you will not forget about the other people out there like you who have the same goals but are just waiting for the light bulb to click…
You Rox!
Love,
Paparoxi
I hope this letter inspires you to know you can change and things will get better. The point is that it is more then diet and exercise it is about REAL happiness and changing your life. I don’t think it was any coincidence that the years I was the most overweight I was in a career I hated or had relationships that were unhealthy. Enjoy your life and know that you can change!