Now compare to this picture taken at my sister's wedding in September. Much better right?
When I stepped on the scale today I weighed 260 pounds and I've been as low as 252. That means in the last year I've lost 40-some pounds and more importantly have been able to keep it off. My back and feet are feeling better, I can feel the additional muscle I've picked up (the key to weight loss) and I don't get winded anymore. Even when I'm on the treadmill at the gym I'm chugging along breathing naturally.
The key to my plan is pretty simple. I plan to do much more than I need to do. Then when I do it is in excess and does even more good than I need it to and when I don't do as much as I planned I still have done enough to do what I need to do. If I plan to go five times a week and I only go three times, it isn't the end of the world nor do I lose ground.
The most important element though is getting to brag about losing a lot of weight. Listen, I'm probably never going to summit Everest or hit a major league curveball and chances are neither are you. That's just life. It's the little challenges you take upon yourself to complete which end up defining your life. Being able to tell people you took on something like this and triumphed makes its own gravy. It becomes a loop of success and praise which reinforces itself over and over.
The easy way out on my personal health would be to do what I did for most of my twenties and just act like it didn't matter. What did I give a fuck for? It's the little challenges though and succeeding on something like this can only pay off in other situations down the line. All in all, it's about changing your ethic. Once you do that you can make bigger changes in your life, changes that will make losing 40 pounds into no big deal.
1 comment:
AMEN! I've lost 50 pounds in the last year and have kept it off, too. And most of it is all about just being healthy.
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