Freelance writer & editor. My mission is to help families get fit and stay healthy.
OK, let’s just start by saying that I have had about 4 hours of crappy sleep, non-consecutive. I am feeling a bit out of it. But I made myself do a Wii step workout. I had a lot of motivation, which I’ll get to shortly. Last night, my husband had a late meeting, and I fell asleep on the couch. He woke me up while I was in the middle of a dream, around 11:30 pm. Went upstairs and got in bed. At 2 am, my daughter came in to tell me she’d had a bad dream. Got her back to bed. Fell asleep. Had my own bad dream. Woke up mumbling nonsense. Tried to get back to sleep. Woke up again. And again. Finally got up at 3:45 am. Did a little work. Dickered around. Gave in and went back to bed at 4:30 am and woke up when my alarm went off at 5:45. Needless to say, I had more than one thought of blowing off my workout.
But I knew I had to do it. I’ve been on a roll and this is not the time to start slacking and sliding back into bad habits. And suddenly, I had a huge motivator.
This morning before he left for work, my husband gave me the hard drive from my old, busted up laptop. It was a great machine, but the hinge had broken, making it extremely difficult to use. I got a new laptop and tried to pull my most important documents off it, but a lot of stuff got left on there, forgotten and “lost.” It’s been sitting there for a few years. I had what I needed on my new laptop and never really thought about the old one. Then my husband bought whatever cords he needed, removed the old hard drive, and gave me the whole contraption. I plugged it into my new laptop (which is now a few years old) this morning and … WOW.
I looked at all my old documents, remembering old clients and assignments. And then, I got to the photos. From 2007. This would’ve been the fittest I’d been in a while, after a big weight loss, and a decent period of maintenance. It didn’t take long to see that my kids weren’t the only ones who’d gotten bigger.
I debated on including those pictures in this post, but I just don’t want to do that. For me, it’s enough to know that it wasn’t so long ago that I looked–and felt–very different. It’s one thing to know you’ve bought bigger clothes or that you’re not able to stretch as far as you used to. But when you see it in a picture, that’s a little more “real.”
Like that old laptop, I’d been forgotten and “lost.” Set aside. Neglected. Not worthy of my time.
But now, I’m feeling even more motivated than before, and it’s time to get serious. It will take a few days to get a schedule figured out, but I’m planning to go back to strength training and continuing to focus on better nutrition. I’m setting small goals for myself, ones that are easier to achieve. I do best when I take it in small steps. And of course, I’ll get stronger as I go, right?
I am not sure if my comment got on here or not so I am re commenting sorry if its a double. The best thing about those pictures is that you were there and you can get back. Maybe a little different but you can do it!
Thanks Shannon. That’ s a good way to look at it. I sort of had that thought this morning, too. “I did it before. I can do it again.” It’s just hard to see yourself like that and then look in the mirror and see such a huge difference.
Donna,
I love the idea of setting small goals and taking small steps. I am trying to do the same this time around as well. I keep reminding myself that the size of the step does not matter. What matters is that we are taking steps in the right direction! I am so glad you are feeling motivated! You can do this!
Thank you, Kay! I really appreciate your encouragement!
Yes, you will get stronger as you go. I think a lot of people make the mistake of only making the BIG goals and then when it doesn’t happen quickly enough they get discouraged and give up. So yes, baby steps! And maybe print one of those old pics and put it somewhere to remind you that you did it before, so can do it again!