Time to Recommit

This week has felt like a Dickens novel: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

The best of times? Weighing in on Monday morning and seeing that the weight I gained with Christmas indulgences was finally gone, and I was at a new “lowest weight in more than 20 years.” My clothes are fitting more loosely, and I got some very nice compliments at church on Sunday.

The worst of times? I let the success lull me into “taking it easy for a few days.” I let down my guard and had some stuff that wasn’t on my eating plan. Then I let myself slide into my old thinking of “Oh, I’m off my diet, so I might as well enjoy some more treats before I get back on.” I also got discouraged when I was putting away a pair of jeans that currently fit me. They fell off the closet shelf, and when I picked them up, I was holding them by the seat of the pants, rather than the waist. It was discouraging to see how wide that part of my slimmed-down body still is. I’ve come a long way, losing 72 pounds, but I still have 27 to go.

Still room for improvement!

I feel like I’m at a crossroads. One path leads uphill. It looks like a tough climb, but I can catch a glimpse of my goal at the top. The other path looks a lot easier. I don’t see my goal at the end of it, though… in fact, I don’t see an end to it. It seems to go around and around without getting anywhere.

I need to make a firm decision to follow the path of healthy eating and consistent workouts. I am encouraged by the way my friend Vicky made a commitment with her friend Lisa to work out together. Even though they live hundreds of miles apart (Vicky is in Michigan, Lisa is in OH), they communicate on a daily basis about their workouts. Through Facebook, e-mails and texts, they coordinate their workouts. Sometimes they start at the same time, so if one calls and says, “I’m not going to make it through this workout,” the other can offer encouragement like “I’m not going to give up, and neither are you!”

I look back on when I first started the LiveFit Revolution workouts and nutrition plan. It was tough, but I stuck to it for the whole six weeks of Phase 1. I worked out with my kettlebells four times a week. I stuck to the detox diet of lean meats, lots of salads and veggies, and a little fruit and brown rice. I lost about 20 pounds in six weeks, an average of more than 3 pounds per week. I find myself wishing I could go back to that intensity and level of commitment to jump-start my weight loss again. I think back to the weekend I spent with LiveFit friends in Philadelphia, doing an intense kettlebell workout, and an hour-long cardio challenge on the art museum stairs. Working out with others made the workouts different: I pushed myself harder, the time flew by faster, and it was definitely more fun that doing it alone.

I think if I could work out a buddy system like Vicky & Lisa, I could pull off a six-week boot camp. If I had somebody calling me out, not letting me get away with excuses for not exercising. If I had somebody checking on me and asking if I stuck to my Phase 1 detox diet. If I had somebody who would meet me at the gym on Saturday mornings to do a crazy cardio challenge like running up and down the stairs for half an hour, or doing sprints around the gym.

I’ll put this out to my friends, both local and across the country. If anybody is willing to join me in a 6-week LiveFit Revolution bootcamp, going back to Phase 1 eating for 6 weeks, and following the workouts for Season 4, and you’re willing to make a commitment to check in daily, let’s go for it! If I do get some local interest, maybe we can meet at church a couple of times a week to do kettlebell workouts together. I have five kettlebells, and I can only swing one at a time, so I’ll share…

Dusting off my kettlebells... it's time to get serious again!