Hi there! Sorry it's been so long since my last post, my kids have been sick a bunch and I've been dedicating all my "free" time to working out, which I will now get into detail about. :)
In my weight loss journey over the last several years, I've hit several roadblocks where it seemed like I was no longer making progress. I guess you could call these times plateaus. Each time I've learned that what my body needs is a new change because for whatever the reason might be, my body has adapted to what I was doing and it was time to kick into higher gear. Sometimes it was easily fixed by adding exercise, changing the frequency of my workouts, maybe trying different food combinations or even eliminating foods that I feel might be slowing my progress down. Some of these stalls have been easy to figure out, like when the new frozen yogurt place opened nearby and I was visiting it far more often than I should have. What I know for sure was these times of treading water weren't failures: they were helpful in me figuring out what works and what doesn't. My goal of achieving an athletic body composition still stands and I will reach it. There is no failure, only results. The results I receive sometimes, whether it be gaining back a few pounds or just standing still show me that I'm a bit off course. I try my best not to get upset because I know and trust that the effort I'm putting into my health is such a great investment. Yes, it is completely frustrating sometimes to think that I'm not getting anywhere but those are the times I need to really analyze what I'm doing or not doing to help me progress.
The last several months have been a big standstill for me, or so it feels. I'm a stubborn gal. I set these weird goals in my mind sometimes like, "I want to lose all of this weight completely on my own just to say *I* did it!" The fact that I lost 120lbs without pills, surgery, weight watchers or anything like that was a really empowering thing for me and I really wanted to stay the course and get the athletic look I desired without "help" from anyone. Then the giant several-month standstill hit me and it took me a long time to come to the realization that if I want an athlete's look, then I really should be training like one. Makes sense right? In the beginning of this journey, I looked at gyms as my secret weapon. I thought to myself, "I'll get as far as I can on my own and THEN I'll join a gym." Funny thing is the closer I've gotten to my goal, the more I've resisted the idea of joining a gym, simply due to stubbornness! So silly.
Two weeks ago, I decided to end the silly stubbornness and try out a sports club about 15 minutes from my house. I was drawn to this particular club because they have a few different pools and one of my fitness goals is to complete a sprint triathlon (1/2 mile Swim, 12 miles biking & 3.1 miles running) which I need to start swimming some serious laps in preparation for. Knowing the triathlon I have in mind is 4 months away, I figured I'd have plenty of time to prepare myself if I joined this gym. I am SO glad I did! Have I seen any big changes in my appearance yet? No, but I feel REALLY strong and love my experience there so far. Just like with anything else in this journey, I have to be patient, do my research and put in the effort. I'm confident with all the changes I've made recently, especially adding serious strength training to my efforts, that I will see positive results. I'll keep you posted!
The moral of the story is: Keep things new & interesting and never give up! You will reach your goals if failure isn't an option. We will do this! :)
2 comments:
Another valuable and thoughtful post! Thank you Alissa! I agree with you; important things in our lives, our health, our family, world peace, whatever it is, these are things where giving up is not a good idea.
Good job cuz!
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