“Oh my gosh Shay! You look great! What is your secret??”
I had heard this a couple of times. It was around 2011 and I had been living back around home for a while and working on my body and self. I didn’t have the magazine quality body you may be imagining, but I did look better than I had the year before.
I lost about 35 pounds and from my absolute heaviest almost 50 pounds.
I always thought of myself as an athlete and when I gained weight I felt like I lost that quality. I would look in the mirror and not recognize the person I saw. I couldn’t move in the same ways I had. I was out of breath and I was constantly tired. I was miserable.
I can’t remember the exact day, but I do remember the feeling. I decided that I was done. I didn’t want to be this way anymore and I took responsibility for my decisions and actions and knew that this would be when I would make change happen.
With my initial goal being weight loss, meeting the goals came and went. I worked out for hours each day and limited my food to the healthiest options I knew of at the time. There was no magic pill, I just did what every knows they need to do, but just hope they don’t have to because of the work.
I’m not saying it was easy, many days in the beginning were a struggle, but after seeing the weight come off and the new habits that formed it became my new obsession. I FELT so much better, I was wearing the body I always knew I was supposed to. ( I say wear because we are not our body’s they are just vessels encasing who were are, I know that now).
I couldn’t believe I had waited as long as I did to lose the weight and in what I thought was well meaning, didn’t understand why everyone couldn’t do the same.
Just do it! Just lose the weight! It’s so simple!
It really is simple, but I know now it’s not that easy. In its simplicity, you work out every day and eat better, done deal. But what about when the cravings kick in, or your tired, or you’re emotionally drained because of a hard day at work or you’re out with friends and they aren’t watching what they eat.
“I deserve a day off today.”
That’s when it’s hard, and those days come often.
Is it the day off you deserve or do you DESERVE to feel better, move better, have more energy and be able to push through long days like that’s your job!
I know now that it is so much more about weight loss. It’s been five years since I lost my weight, and I was so happy to be slim and have more energy, but it hasn’t been until recently that I can truly grasp what being active and feeding my body the nutrition it deserves really means. (More on that later, otherwise this could’ve been a book)
I desperately want to share this feeling with everyone else. I move better each day and I’m more productive because I rarely have to take sicks days and I’m not tired.
What would that mean to you in your life and in your job?
If you work for someone else, wouldn’t it be great to take more days off to be with your family, rather than because you have to stay in bed all day. What if the physical activity that you do at work was done with more ease, and you were less tired when you got home work and brought a better version of yourself to your kids or spouse.
If you are self employed, how much more could you get accomplished and get that much closer to your goals. Would you free up more of your time, by being more productive?
Treating your body right isn’t about the number on the scale, its about YOU and how you can thrive each day!
There is no doubt there is a process, but anything worth having takes time.
If I can do it, so can you.
There is no difference between me and you, we are simply at different places in our process.
Please share if you think there is someone who could benefit from reading this. My goal is to reach as many people as I can to help through their process.
