Last Monday I put it all out there. Literally.
I joined a weight loss competition and I showed you my “before” pictures.
The competition officially started last Monday, so it’s been one week… How has it gone?
Well first, in case you haven’t already figured it out, I’m super competitive.
Like SUPER competitive.
That’s part of the reason I joined this competition in the first place. I know this program will work for me because I don’t like to lose.
Or I at least appreciate a challenge. And I’m motivated by a goal. And my goal is to lose about 25 pounds (and it’s not about a specific number on the scale but more what my ideal running weight is for the Boston Marathon).
So anyway, there are different categories in this challenge that they keep score for, in addition to percentage of weight lost.
They keep score for total cardio minutes, number of fitness classes, number of spin classes, laps swum, miles run, and elliptical miles.
When I did this program three years ago, I started out wanting to win a couple categories.
And then by the end, I decided I wanted to win three and be in the top five in all of them.
I pretty much went psycho, and I ended up winning the laps swum. I got second in total percentage of weight lost and cardio minutes. And I was in the top five for the rest.
I didn’t quite meet every goal, but I came close. But for twelve weeks, that competition was my sole focus.
This year I had decided I wanted to win four of the categories, one of them being total cardio minutes.
Then last week happened.
And I also read this section in Getting the Love You Want about “exits.”
Exits are basically things you do in your marriage to avoid the dealing with the issues that are causing problems and to keep distance between you and your partner.
It is very difficult to identify what is wrong in a relationship if the participants keep themselves distant and distracted. Even more important, two intimate partners cannot reconnect with each other until they are physically and emotionally available…
I’m supposed to be narrowing my exits.
Going psycho in a weight loss competition and aiming to log at least 800 minutes of cardio each week will not narrow my exits. It will widen them.
I need to be realistic. I can’t forget my priorities. My marriage needs a chunk of those 800 cardio minutes.
I’m not giving up on this competition. Not by a long shot.
But I need to reevaluate what is important to me.
What’s more important? Being able to say that I logged more cardio minutes in a weight loss competition than everybody else? Or working on my marriage?
Hmmmmm. That’s a pretty dumb question.
So don’t get me wrong. I still plan on being competitive. But not in every category.
While I didn’t get to exercise as much as I wanted, I had a good week.
I worked out for a total of 370 minutes.
I stuck to my marathon training plan.
I’m slowly getting the food situation back under control.
I didn’t lose any pounds.
But I can already see that my body is changing..
The rolls on my back are definitely shrinking!
It wasn’t a perfect week. I’ve had a couple glasses of wine. A few beers. I’ve eaten a couple things that may not have been the healthiest choices. But for the most part, I’m back on track.
It feels good.
And a friend of mine told me my ass looked good in my black leggings yesterday, so that’s plenty of motivation to stay the course right there.
It feels good to have some discipline back in my life in the food department.
If you vowed to lose weight or eat healthier this year and then slipped up, don’t throw in the towel.
You don’t need to be perfect. Any change you made in the right direction is a good change.
You don’t have to do it all at once.
It’s not about perfection. It’s just about progress.
I didn’t have a perfect first week.
But I’m closer to where I want to be today than I was a week ago, and ultimately that’s all that really matters.
Just curious what your height and weight was before starting.. not that your height will change!
And congrats on the loss of back rolls 🙂 I can see it too! After having 6 kids I need a bit of firming up too :/ my youngest is only 2 months so I’m not too down on myself yet.