Still Winning, Small Wins are Still Wins

This has been an interesting week for me with some highs and some lows.  More importantly the lows have taught me some important lessons.  Whilst I think they are lows, they are not really that bad in the grand scheme of things and I am glad I have learnt that now and can focus on the end goal of becoming a healthier and happier version of myself.

The biggest bonus of the week was the weigh in result this week.  I jumped on the scales and found I had dropped another kilogram.  That means I have now lost 22.4kgs in 11 ½ weeks.  That is amazing and something I only thought impossible before starting this journey.  I am over the moon with my results so far, how I have embraced the program (both diet and exercise) and how I am aware now that I am 100% in control of my own destiny.  There are no more excuses and no one else can do it for me.  The weight will only go and I will only be the person I have been dreaming of for a long time if I get off my arse and JFDI NOW!!!!

Add to the good result this morning, I opened up our weekly Wednesday email from Michelle to find that I was selected as one of the weekly winners for last weeks’ weekly surprise.  Whilst this weeks’ winners were randomly selected from all the entries, I am over the moon.  This is my second weekly win, which means I have been lucky enough to get $700 worth of prizes in this 12 week period.  Add to that I have been fortunate enough to have this blog highlighted on Michelle Bridge’s Facebook page and also have some of my tweets Retweeted by Michelle for my weekly weigh in progress.  All in all, I am in a good place with what has come back at me from this program and it encourages me to know that I am heading in the right direction both physically but more importantly mentally.

I have also been fortunate enough this week to have received a number of compliments from people to about my weight loss, of which I rarely speak.  All these kind words, questions about what I have been doing and how good I look are wonderful and let me know that other people are aware of the effort you have made and want to know how you are doing it.  I am more than happy to preach the benefits of Michelle’s program and I have even referred a couple of people as they want to join up and reap the rewards.

With all the fluffy stuff out the way, I suppose I also need to touch on the lessons I have learnt this week also.  Now as I mentioned, none of them are life threatening or end of the road sort of dramas, well not for me anyway, but they are important flashpoints to make the most of before they get bigger.  As mentioned in a previous post, the wines that I had on the weekend were a warning to me.  Don’t get back into old habits.  Did I really need them or did I just feel like I wanted them to make things feel better.  In the past I would have had far too many, felt good at the time and crook the next day.  This is not how I want to be moving forward, especially when it impacts on my ability to get up and exercise.  Why do it?  Secondly I have learnt more so this week than any of the others that this weight loss game is more mental than anything.  If you can control the mind for good and not evil, you will win more than you lose.  I am winning at the moment, but don’t let the dark voices creep in to consume your thoughts or the diet and the exercise will go out the window.

What am I baffling on about?  Well there are 2 examples from this week that jump into my mind.  On Monday I had a full day meeting which was catered for.  I took some fruit, but no lunch.  When morning tea came in and there were some wonderful looking danishes on the plate, the first thing that jumped into my mind was, they are only small, I can have one and include it in my calories for the day.  Why did I have this thought?  It is the first time I have felt like this in 12 weeks.  I am not even a big cake person.  Thankfully the next though that entered my mind killed the first.  I then said to myself, no chance buddy, it is probably 300 calories for that small piece and it is full of butter, custard and sugar.  You don’t need it.  I was so relieved to have stopped myself and then proceeded to eat a pear instead.  One small win for the Shrinking Man.

The second mind battle that I won was on Tuesday night when out for my run.  I tend to push myself a little with everything I do in this program.  I was not sure why initially and I looked at it as being a competition.  I told my wife early on that I intended on being on stage at finale as one of the winners.  Now this is something that realistically I knew was not going to happen, but it was a goal for me to shoot towards.  I need the end goal to keep me motivated.  Whilst out joffling on Tuesday night it dawned on me that this entire journey has fuelled my competitive streak, but who am I competing against.  No one else on the journey is racing me, trying to lose more weight than me, nor am I trying to do that to anyone else.  I have been competing against myself, against my own goals.  Now this is not a bad thing.  It is good to want to beat your targets, to improve on your times, to set new PB’s.  I am improving in every area of my life, I just need to make sure these battles I am having with myself are for positive reasons.  At least at the moment they are to push myself harder and they are not in any way negative.  If I don’t lose the 25kgs I hope to lose for this round (currently at 22.4kgs) so what.  I have lost so much weight so far and I am so proud of the journey I have travelled that I have won already.  Whether I am on stage at finale or not, I am already winning my battle.  I will be able to continue to walk around knowing other people have acknowledged the hard work I have put in and that I am improving on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.  I am setting a good example for my kids, my colleagues and staff and hopefully inspiring them to do something about their weight loss sooner rather than wait like I did until a large portion of your life has passed you by.

Remember, You are in CONTROL of your destiny, JFDI now.