I talk to people quite often about my weight loss experience. How I did it, why I did it, how I keep it off.  I think because statistically speaking many people don’t succeed, people have said to me that they wish they had whatever I have that enabled me to be one of the ‘lucky ones.’

I’d like to say for the record, that I don’t have anything that everyone else doesn’t have inside them. And I’m not ‘lucky’. The fact is, keeping weight off can be hard, and often boring, and I’m not on plan all the time.  Sometimes I’m unmotivated, and at times I eat buckets of crap food and drink useless sugary drinks.  To illustrate, for the past three weeks, up until a few days ago, I’d been to the gym one time and eaten pretty much nothing with any nutritional value.

It wasn’t self sabotage. I just felt like eating crap and didn’t feel like working out – the same as a lot of people I know. It started to get dark early, I was mopey, work was stressful, I had boy troubles… I really just felt like sitting on the couch and eating guacamole and watching bad TV and not going to the gym. So that’s what I did.

Fast forward to three weeks later.  My pants were fitting less well, my mood was screwed up because my blood sugar was all over the place, my sleep was disturbed because my sugar and caffeine intake were through the roof, which then had me drinking more caffeine to stay awake, and all I wanted to eat were chips and sugar and burgers, and anything involving cheese.  So a few days ago I packed my gym bag and took it to work. I bought healthy food and ate it. I went to the gym for a moderate workout after work even though I had slept like crap the night before and didn’t want to go, even a little.  And I went to the gym the next day. And today. And didn’t eat crap, and now I’m back to not wanting to.  I did that not because I have something other people don’t have, some iron control or willpower, but because over three years ago I made a choice.  I know what this pattern will get me; it’ll get me to 220 pounds.  What I do now has an impact on my life months from now, and if I don’t smarten up and do what I know I need to do, six months from now I will not be in a good place. And that’s not acceptable to me.

So when I got up a few morning ago feeling like crap, instead of saying “I’ll go to the gym and eat better tomorrow/Monday/after my birthday/other”, I said “Suck it up, Buttercup.” and just did it.   I like the place I’m in now. I earned this place.  And I am not giving it up for a burrito and a nap.

Jenn