This month’s fitness report will be a little different. Because I am approaching the end of my basic weight loss part of getting fit I want to focus altogether on my weight loss as well as report on my thinking about the weight loss goal and its relationship to fitness in general as well as my plans for maintaining my new weight. These are important concepts to me and I hope they will benefit others as well.
Years ago (when I was much younger of course) I used to run a good bit. There is a lot you can learn from running in addition to its obvious health benefits. One thing I remember well was the great satisfaction that came from finishing well.
Taking the Last Lap with Style!
When I ran, no matter how far I ran (typically about five miles but some days ten or more) the best part was that last 100 yards. No matter how exhausted I was, when the finish line came in site there would inevitably be an adrenaline rush that enabled me to speed up and finish the run with a flourish.
That is somewhat how I feel this month about my weight loss effort. I began a year ago last April. Now some sixteen months later I see the goal I originally set out on in site to reach within a few weeks, perhaps even by the end of this month.
At the beginning of July I weighed 183 pounds and I ended the month at 179 pounds, another consistent four pound reduction. All I have to do now is keep up my current pace one more month. When I started my weight loss program I weighed 255 pounds; now that I am down to 179 pounds I have dropped just over 75 pounds. My goal has been to reach 175 pounds—only four more to go!
The truth is, I am both excited and a bit anxious since in the past I have so often failed at my attempts to lose weight. However, this time I am really confident that the results will be different. My confidence is certainly bolstered by the fact that my weight loss plan has proven itself to give me the consistent weight loss I wanted month after month for so long.
Now to Finish Strong!
Not only do people often fail to finish strong, even on major goals, they many times will fail to finish at all. It does not make much sense I know, but the truth is that most if not all of us have done it. We set out to achieve some goal. Then after reaching the point where we know we can do it we have lost interest and failed to finish the course. Not good.
Fortunately, some years ago I learned about good goal setting and personal achievement skills. Mostly by luck I met some people who turned my attention to some terrific resources and knowledgeable teachers in the field of personal development and achievement.
These are valuable skills to master and over time I expect to write more about them on this site as I have elsewhere. They have made it possible for me to achieve many other important goals over the years and have worked well on this project as well.
Because I am committed to my fitness program I am not only focused on this weight loss goal but on several other getting fit goals to follow so I am confident that I will finish strong—certainly with this first phase of getting my weight down to an acceptable level, and even more so now that this end line is in site.
Is Reaching the Finish Line Enough?
Even before I reach this weight loss goal I am thinking carefully about its relative importance to other fitness goals. To me this is critical.
Over the last few months I have been thinking about it and mentioning it here in these monthly reports to some extent. Losing weight is only one of several fitness goals. Then, my top goal as far as weight is concerned is not to lose weight but to weigh less. This is an important distinction. Its most important aspect is to emphasize learning to permanently eat in a way that will sustain and maintain my proper weight rather than just to initially get my weight down.
Over the last two to three months I have been migrating off of simple weight loss meals to foods I really like and can eat from now on. I am finding it to be a lot of fun but also some work. My most obvious changes have been eating a lot of different fruits instead of the few I have depended on during my weight loss program for my snacks and adding more vegetables to my meals. I will try to post more about some of these and other changes in detail soon.
Conclusion
In no part of life is it more important to finish the course than in our efforts to become physically and mentally fit. Incredibly, in spite of all the attention of government and health related organizations, as well as the marketing of weight loss and health products commercially, the overall public health situation continues to deteriorate, certainly as far as weight is concerned.
Over the last few years we have seen the stats move from 33% overweight and 33% obese to 33% and 35% respectively. The trend is up not down! I am so glad that I have finally started moving my life toward fitness and I hope that my sharing the potential for success that I am finding will be encouraging to others.