The Arena

I watched a motivational speech today by Greg Plitt and it really inspired me.  He said "I failed is better than what if, because what if never entered the arena".  Each of us has our own arena, our own battles and struggles that we go through.  Failure in life is inevitable.  We all have small set backs.  It really doesn't matter how many times we fail as long as we keep stepping into the arena.

Every one of us walks a different path.  Our struggles are different, our bodies are different and our muscle structure is different.  There is no one-size-fits-all plan for weight loss or fitness.  The way we lose weight is as individual as we are.  What works for my neighbor may or may not work for me.  

Making healthy decisions for weight loss and fitness is not an easy journey.  The sooner we all realize and embrace that the less we will be ourselves up over not reaching results as fast as the celebrities or models in magazines.  Fitness is not a race or competition.  The only person we should be in competition with is the person we were yesterday.  If we ask ourselves each day what we can do to take care of our minds and/or bodies the happier we'll all be.

I know that this seems a little jumbled today, but I just have so much bubbling up inside.  I'm so excited about my fitness journey, including all of it's ups and downs.  My path has been anything but straight, but I've learned a lot about myself, the process and what I'm capable of.  I haven't even begun to tap into my full potential, and I know that with the support of my Husband and my family I can achieve that.

Numbers are misleading

Over the course of my fitness journey, I have had to remind myself that my level of fitness is not defined by the number on the scale.  I received a compliment this morning from a neighbor that I see in the gym frequently about my looking thinner and that my face has slimmed down.  My immediate thoughts went to the number on the scale.  Pictures though as well as the way my clothes fit tell a different story than the number on the scale does.

Eating healthier and increasing my number of workouts is starting to pay off.  I don't run as many miles as I did before I strained my achilles, but I'm doing pilates and weights which seem to be changing the way my body looks and feels.  I've increased the weight on my upper body work from 10 pounds to 15 pounds and increased my leg press from 60 pounds to 72 pounds and plan on upping that to the next plate next week.  All of those things are progress, even if the scale doesn't show it the way I would like it to.

The point is, keep going.  Just because we don't see the expected changes reflected in the scale, chances are we will see those changes in the way our clothes fit, the way we feel and our levels of energy.