One this in true I think, it is HARD (sometimes feels TOO hard) to get started. I am glad I did. It is almost a year since I had weight loss surgery. I have lost 20 inches on my waist alone and over 107 pounds. What a life changer that is but taking the first steps and following them with more little important steps and so on could feel overwhelming, especially in the beginning. Was it scary and hard, of course it was! BUT this blog is NOT about weight loss surgery it IS about reclaiming and claiming something of mine (or yours) that I want for my life! The surgery was just one of my little steps. An important one yes, but it was only a step. I have more weight to lose, fitness goals and life goals and then there is maintenance as a healthy eating individual. It isn’t about the surgery, it IS about life.
Does it matter if you are having surgery of this type or starting a weight loss regime of your own, or a gym/workout regime or whatever. The first step is the hardest! Following it up with other steps is the next hardest….
One of my favorite sayings is this:
“A journey of three thousand miles is begun with a single step.”
If the goal seems far far away it can be even more daunting. For me in the beginning it was – 1) go to the seminar
2) go the doctor and check him/her out
3) go to the free support groups and see how people did
4) find out all I could about it online
5) do my pre-op stuff (lots of doctors appointment and lab work)
6) get insurance approval
7) make SURE I had the right stuff in the house like protein drinks and vitamins
8) read “Weight loss surgery for Dummies” 🙂
and so on up until the day of the surgery.
That day I took one single tiny step and showed up, trusted them (it was scary) and just did it.
Then in the hospital postop I did what they said.
Same when I got home.
I added walking many times a week and from a coach potato I walk no less than 8 miles a week (usually much much more than that). It is the MENTAL part of this that is the hardest thing I think. Just taking that step mentally and following by action. But you only have to do ONE step and follow it with another, then another and so on.
And on and on. All things together in my mind would have seemed impossible. It is not. I am not that special (well sort of but you know what I mean, ordinary human person) but I decided I was NOT going to ask myself this-
IN A YEAR would I look back and wonder where I would be that day if I had taken the steps I wanted to get to my goals in life a year before or would I still be looking at the starting point?
What are your goals? What do YOU personally want to do?
- Do you want to climb a mountain but need to train?
- Do you want to run the Boston Marathon but can only walk a block?
- Do you want to lose weight to get into that cute bikini but need to make the decision?
- Do you want to hike the Appalachian Trail from Canada to the end but have to take the training to get this done?
- Do you want to go to college and get another or your first degree?
- Do you want to travel abroad but need to save the money to be able to go?
- Do you want to sail around the USA and eventually around the world in your sailboat but need to figure out everything to be able to take that year off and pursue your dream?
- Do you want to go to Rome and see every sight and learn the language?
- Do you want to go to a real yoga retreat in India but know there is much you need to do in preparation?
- Do you want to walk a mile a day but are so sedentary you are only on the sofa watching TV?
- Do you want to become and artist but have to take lessons?
- Do you want to do things you have only dreamed about but have been procrastinating for 20 years?
- Do you want to be a bodybuilder but only go to the gym now and then and keep putting it off?
THE TIME HAS COME TODAY!
Make it happen for yourself and don’t get discouraged. Others are falling down and getting up again everywhere around the world all the time! Just do it, take that first simple tiny step. Make those steps little, tiny and manageable and build on that. If you have a bad day or week just dust yourself off and just go for it again!
I do this in so many places in my life each and every day and the steps are getting stronger and bolder and easier each day!
It is my one and only life and I want to make it count (don’t you?) so I am taking that journey.
I know in one year I will look back happy. I won’t be on my sofa watching reruns wondering where my life went. I will have reclaimed my life and people if I can do it I have no doubt you can!
thereclaimedlife 