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I wanted to write this article and be vulnerable about my own weight loss journey. For the record, I’ve been an athlete since age 4. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and didn’t get social media until I was a junior in college (Facebook for the record).
I was part of a college sport that eating disorders were rampant (long distance running) and never thought about losing weight. I knew some of my friends had issues but I never understood it. Plus, when you are running 60 miles a week and still growing, (I actually stunted by height and lost an inch which I gained back shortly after I graduated) it wasn’t hard to stay thin. In fact, the first time I actually began to realize I wanted to lose weight was 6 months before my wedding back in 2017. I was the heaviest I had ever been and honestly it was the first time in my life that I was worried about losing weight.
So I will count myself fortunate. Not just fortunate that I grew up eating regular meals and having a mom that cooked or that I was a healthy weight for a growing kid. But it never even entered my mind that my weight was an issue. Somehow I missed all that. It wasn’t until years later when I began training teenagers in Westchester County in New York who came in having goals of “cutting carbs” and “toning up” that I realized I had dodged quite a few bullets.
I hit a new all time high with my weight this year and after turning 40 I doubled down. I increased my activity, started logging to ensure I was hitting a certain number for protein and fiber and stopped drinking. But as we all know, there is so much more to weight loss. For me, these last 15 lbs are about so much more.
A fair comparison is for my fellow trainers who “just need 2 more clients”. We don’t really have to make any real changes to just gain 2 clients. We won’t go broke, we can survive without those few extra sessions each week. So what do we do? We probably do nothing. And the same can be said about weight loss. When it’s just a little weight, what’s the difference if we don’t do it?
And that was what kept playing over and over in my mind. And then something just clicked. I was launching my business and having to make all of these videos for my app which well, wasn’t very fun. I knew that I needed to be on camera more and was afraid I wasn’t putting my best self forward for prospective clients. I needed to put in the work.
I also had a bit of a health scare during my last MAT visit in Chicago. We had a real conversation about my microdiscectomy. Did I need the surgery? Yes, without a doubt. Due to my weak core and feet coupled with a lot of heavy lifting, I had actually “punctured” my disc at L5/S1. That basically means it will continue to lose shape and not get the nutrients it needs and will sort of die in way. This will lead to either more changes in the discs above and below it or it could lead to me having to get a hip replacement.
It hit me like a ton of bricks and I thought I need to spend more time taking better care of myself if I want to stay active.
So over the course of me losing the first 10 of the 15 lbs, I have joined a marketing agency to help me learn more, read 8 books, connected with numerous business owners to help me gain perspective, continued not drinking, and written page and pages in my journal. I have made so many changes because I committed to “losing weight.”
So I challenge you to think about some of those abstract goals you have written down before but haven’t begun to work on. Maybe it’s writing a book, changing careers or spending more time with family. I encourage you to sit down and do a little creative thinking on what it would take to reach those goals. Sometimes we don’t really know until we start. And that’s okay.
To steal from Lance Armstrong, “It’s Not About the Bike”. Sometimes we have these goals that we think are what’s important. But in reality they are about so much more. Me wanting to lose the weight is much more about me taking care of me, putting myself first. It’s about saying it’s really freaking important for me to build the business that I want. It’s important that I read a lot of books. Because it’s also what makes me happy.
I hope you learned a little more about me and can take this blog and apply to your own life. I encourage you to dig into those dreams and goals you have rolling around. There is usually so much more underneath it all. Drop me a line, I would love to hear about your own goals you are working towards!