It’s Never Too Late
You may be 5 pounds from your goal weight. You may be 155 pounds away. You might have a few weeks left in this journey, or a year or more. One thing I have come to understand, through this yo-yo circus of weight gain, loss, gain, and losing again, is that the process is as important as the end result, and that it is never too late to take care of yourself, to start over, or to begin for the first time.
This past week wasn’t my best week, and it won’t go down in history as my most impressive effort in this weight loss journey. It means I am behind on my hoped-for schedule of reaching goal weight. It means I am now further from my goal than I hoped to be.
What it doesn’t mean is that I may as well give up, or that I should be so frustrated and disappointed that I stop caring or trying. It doesn’t mean I should not be proud of what I have accomplished so far.
Getting in shape and losing weight take time. (A hell of a lot more time than gaining weight, mind you, but that is one of our bodies’ many clever little practical jokes.) It’s not always going to move along at the pace we like or stick to a schedule we have made up.
I think often of the time I have wasted, because had I stayed consistent, I wouldn’t have this weight to re-lose. Instead I’d be enjoying a fit, strong body! But getting trapped in that mindset can be counterproductive. Acknowledging a mistake is far different from shackling myself with guilt and punishment until I don’t move forward at all.
Tomorrow is a new day. It’s not too late to start over, get into a better mindset, learn from mistakes made this past week, and do better next week!
My biggest mistakes this past week:
1. Neglecting my food diary
2. Not being consistent with workouts
3. Using my back injury as an excuse to slack off! 
XML Feed
Oi, yes. I also think that low weeks are necessary, because nobody can be perfect forever (unless you are a marble statue). And yes, it takes a lot of time. I find that this setting time aside day after day is the most difficult thing. I am also starting to realise that as long as it is consistent, every day effort, one doesn’t have to sweat buckets during each & every workout. In fact, I find it counterproductive, because it makes me far too hungry.
New week’s coming up, new opportunities, new possibilities, and luckily it’s one of many more week.
Girl, you sure got it right! I can really relate to this–up and down I go. But, we learn and we go on. We will succeed…who cares if it takes a bit longer–maybe we have more to learn. Thanks for this.
A small slip-up easily turns into a downward spiral if we let it…I have done that far too many times and it’s truly not helpful!
I have found the answer after a year of doing this. If I mess up one day, I start over the next day and not the next week like I used to. So, now I am losing the weight a little faster than I had been. It’s easy to slack off, but it’s worth it not to. You have already done great losing.
Thank you so much for this!! I’m gonna try and print it out and post it over my fridge or mirror. I’ve been on an aweful downward spiral since Spring, and it’s killing me.
Thanks for sharing, I needed this.
exactly!!!! You got it right on girl!
Awesome blog…So very well said!!!
So right. And we can’t rush it either. Time to move ahead and not beat ourselves up for time lost. Well said!