There is no finish line . . . so why bother?

Years ago, when I was getting ready to get married, and then again after I had my boys, I decided I was fed up with how I felt and needed to do something to change. My goal? To lose weight and get skinny. Isn't that where most of us start?

I knew I wasn't happy, and I thought that losing weight and looking a certain way would make me happy. I lost close to 50 pounds with that being my goal. In my mind, looking skinny would make me feel happy. Imagine my surprise when I lost all that weight and my flaws didn't go away. They just got smaller. I also gained a few more "flaws" along the way. (I say "flaws" because I don't really think about them that way now.) I'm proud of the work I put in to lose the weight. I had to make huge changes to my lifestyle with a family that, at the time, did not want to make those same changes. 

There were quite a few challenges that came up as I worked through these changes.

• randomly stopping for ice cream in the middle of the day, for no real reason
• junk food in the house
• wanting to focus our groceries on healthier options but being the only one ready to change, still buying boxed/processed meals
• doing a program that tried to teach healthier habits but really only focused on a calculation of macros rather than actual nutrients
• No working out--since I had to weigh in every week and working out makes me gain weight (the good kind) I refused to do anything besides cardio once a week. I knew that if I did more than that, I would get on the scale at the end of the week and the number would go up instead of down.

This list is just a few. I want to focus on the last bullet point. I had set a goal weight for myself. To this day, I have not reached that elusive number on the scale. I was paying to be part of a program that wasn't giving me enough information. It was great to get me started but if I really wanted to make good, healthy progress, I had to find another way to get to the finish line. BUT WAIT!! I said there is no finish line. Well, at the time, I still thought there was. I knew that I needed to workout more. That it would be the change that might eventually push me to my goal. I still thought the goal was a number on the scale. 

As I continued to make changes in my life, my family finally jumped on board and we became a much better team. I started tracking my progress differently. My mindset has changed so much over the last few years. I don't really have an end goal in mind anymore. I don't see a finish line that will take me into the magical place of happiness and loving myself. I had to learn to love myself now. 

If there is anything I've learned that I hope to share with others, it's that loving yourself as you are now is extremely important for reaching your goals. I say that there is no finish line. There really isn't. Once I accepted that and rethought my goals, I was able to start appreciating the little steps and changes that were taking place in my life. 

I know that I talk about Beachbody all the time. I truly love the company. There is nothing else that has helped me as much as being a part of this huge fitness movement. The best part is that it isn't a program that you have to do to get to a final number on a scale. Each time I start a new program, or one I've already done, I set a new goal for myself. That goal is NEVER a number on the scale. I don't even weigh myself anymore. I know how I'm doing based on how I feel, how my clothes fit, and the definition I see in the mirror.

So if you're still focused on an end number on the scale and feeling frustrated . . . let it go. Set a smaller goal. Focus on one small change that you can make that will enrich your life. If that's cutting out refined sugars, then focus on that for a week. If that's adding in a 30 minute workout to your day, make that your goal and track it. Maybe you just want to find small ways to be more active in your day. Plan for it and stick to it. Goals don't have to be a far away finish line that you feel like you'll never accomplish. Trust me, having an arbitrary number on the scale as a goal was setting myself up for failure. I've been doing this for almost 5 years, since my youngest was almost 2. I still haven't hit that original number on the scale that I had set as my goal. Look back at my posts. Have I failed? NO!! I'm succeeding . . . one small checkpoint at a time. The focus is no longer on a number at the end of a long road. My goals change with my needs. What do you need?