Determination is one of the most important aspects of losing weight in my opinion. I love the definition of determination put like this : a firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired goal. When you desire so deeply a certain goal and become firm on reaching it you become unstoppable. I desired a life without food dictating it and became fixed on making my life about healthy eating and habits. After just doing it joining weightwatchers and realizing I was worth it, I realized I needed more then that. To begin is one thing, to continue is another. I had to get to determined not only with my eating habits but my other ones too.
Exercise always was an awful subject for me. I enjoyed running but didn’t want to do it all the time. I considered eating chips as exercise. I mean the very motion of lifting hand to bag to mouth had to burn some calories. I would always look for some excuse as to why I couldn’t exercise. I was too busy. I had late classes. I had no one to go with me. I was too fat. The list of excuses went on. When I became determined to change my life and habits for good I really had to get determined to make exercise a priority.
I applied my first tip in my first blog of knowing I was worth it and needed to just do it. So I did. I joined a gym and found a personal trainer. I was pretty much broke and had to research gyms that were inexpensive. I asked about a training program and took complete advantage of the free consultation the gym I joined offered. Then I scheduled biweekly 30 min workouts with the trainer for just the first 3 months to keep cost down. I could have used money and lack of knowhow as an excuse but I was determined to get to my goal. The next challenge I faced was the weather. In my usual style of having absolute impeccable timing I chose to began all this in the dead of winter in the northeast. For those of you from that area you can understand how hard it was to do that. I battled snow storms, thunderstorms and my favorite the pure ice storms. One month into my workouts we had a blizzard. I was scheduled to work out and was racking my brain on how to not be thrown off my routine. I was not going to let that blizzard be an excuse. I found on my cable network, exercise tv and it was pretty damn good timing to find it. I realized then I wanted to buy some exercise videos for the days that mothernature would decide to throw me a challenge. I didn’t want to find one excuse because I knew how quickly one excuse could lead to another. At the time my boys were 1 and 3 and that was another challenge. Most of the time due to my husbands work schedule, making dinner and not wanting to skip bedtime routines. I wouldn’t find myself making it to the gym before 8pm, on some nights I would get lucky and go at 6 and be back for bedtime. But let me tell you 8 pm in January in the Northeast not so much fun. I would freeze on the way to the car and think dear God Im either nuts or you made me one determined woman. I know it’s likely to be a little of both.
Now, going to the gym or getting a workout in is second nature. Just like I get hungry for food.. I get hungry for my workouts. Working out has also help me deal with the stress of my daily life and saved me in many other ways. My determination paid off and I reached my goal.
So now that you have read how determination helped me form a new life filled with exercise, I challenge you to find out where else in your weight loss journey you can use determination. Is it like me with needing to get determined to work out? Do you need the determination to make healthier food choices? Where ever you need it you can do it. Set your goal and get firm on it. Remember you are worth that determination!
