One Step at a Time

If someone had walked into my house a year ago and told me I had to lose 90 pounds and I had 12 months to do it ... or else ... I would have told them to get bent.

If someone would have told me I had to lose 45 pounds and I had 6 months to do it, I would have said much the same thing.

Luckily, no one walked into my house and demanded anything. (If you know me, you know taking direction isn't my best skill. Kind of like you can't play a Playa ... you can't boss around a bossy bi+$#.)

And I didn't put those requirements on myself, either.

I made a decision to be healthier. To eat less, eat right and exercise more. I had no idea how long it would take to lose a pound. I had no idea how much exercise was "enough" to get more fit. So I decided to try it for a while to see what would happen.

And I promised myself to do it for me.

So I tried to lose 10 pounds. When I'd lost 10 pounds, I could re-evaluate and see if I wanted to continue.

I wanted to continue.

So I went for another 10. And then I decided 10 more was possible.

And all of a sudden I had some new habits. I felt different. I believed I could succeed. And I learned that it wasn't nearly as hard as I'd feared.

I talked to Broken Treadmill Girl today and she said she's concentrating on 5-pound increments. She said she's learned that thinking about some big number is too much. Setting a reasonable, attainable goal prevents her from feeling so overwhelmed or pressured. And then succeeding with that smaller goal gives her confidence moving forward.

What's right for you? Only you know. But you do know if you really look deep and are honest with yourself.

This isn't new information to anyone, right? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and all that jazz. Believe me, I used to think it was kind of a load of crap, too. Really, what difference can it make to think about things differently?

It made a big difference for me. 90 pounds big.