Try, Try Again

The title of this post is so telling of my life lately. When my sister and I started this blog we wanted a space where we could be honest in our weight loss journey.

Over the last month, I have felt my motivation waning. There are any number of excuses, mainly that my family came down with a horrible case of the flu, and for the first time in her little life my 8 month old experienced the flu. It was horrible! I let this hold me back from going to the gym, or even exercising at home, and I slacked off (big time!) on my meal plan. Needless to day, the weight came back (darn!).

I am taking today to refocus myself. Tell myself I CAN do this. This is important to me; I want to feel good about myself, have my self esteem return, and be able to do and wear the things I want.

I started off today with an intense weight lifting class, and I feel strong and motivated. It's been a while since I have gone on a run (I also was on the receiving end of that silly flu bug), but I am going to run this week. My goal is to make all 4 runs scheduled, as my 10k is only 2 weeks away! I have my meals planned, and I am picking up the rest of the groceries today. No more excuses!

I think at times in our lives we all need to take a step back and realize that our lives are not perfect, we are not perfect, but these imperfections makes us human. How would we define success without setbacks? My personal definition of success is persevering in spite of setbacks.

I have to come to terms with the fact that I am not really any closer to my goal than when we started this journey, and I need to note those mistakes I have made, and really focus on not repeating them. I have to remind myself that this process takes time, and it is a complete lifestyle change, but if I keep at it, I will see the results I so desperately want to see.

Thank you for reading this (anyone out there?!) and following along this path, even though I may detour from time to time, I have to remind myself of what my goal is, and keep my eye on the prize.

Here's to starting the week off right!

And I'll leave you with an incredibly deep quote that really doesn't have anything to do with weight loss, but more with life in general. Martin Luther knew what he was talking about:

"We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road."

Also, I know my posts have been sucking without some pictures interspersed, so I'm working on that. Stay tuned!

-Ali

Change is hard

The last couple weeks have kinda sucked. Personally, I'm great. Happy husband, happy little girl, happy home. But I've been avoiding the scale like the plague. I was on a roll the first few week. I was running 3-5 times/week, I stared strength training in the morning. I was down 7 lbs! And then I got comfortable, maybe a little too comfortable. I stopped putting in as much effort. I all but stopped planning my meals, workouts, etc. And we all know that failing to plan is planning to fail. :( So 2 weeks ago when I hopped back on the scale I had gained half a pound. So what have I done these past two weeks? Did my .5lbs gain spur me into action? No! and that is what really pisses me off. Why is it that I can see plain as day what the problem is, what I need to do in order to fix it and I still don't? Well, I'm not going to hold me back anymore!

Its a new month and I am starting off with a bang. I started Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred video today (and I am going to finish it this time)! I forgot how hard this first day is. You would think that with the running I've been doing my legs would be stronger, but those squats and lunges KILL! I'll be updating my progress throughout the month. There will be actual...wait for it...pictures!! I know. I'm shocked too. I'll be doing this in addition to running. It seems like a lot right now, but I AM going to get through it and come out better for it. 

Today is a planning day. I'm making a list of go-to dinners so that my meal planning becomes a tad more simplified. I'm going to chart our my workouts for the month as well. And I'm thinking I need to put up a few reminders around the house. Maybe something on the fridge reminding me to think before I eat. Spring is just 19 days away! Its time to dig deep and push thru the slump.

I'll be back in a couple days with some updates but until then...