In 2012, being heaviest I'd ever been (85 kgs), I got sick and tired of being so unfit, unhappy and feeling crappy about myself. With lots of hard work - calorie counting in MyFitnessPal and training for half marathon I got down to 67.5kgs. My goal weight was about 5kg less but to be honest, I felt good where I was so stopped there.
For a while I maintained around 68-72kg mark and that felt comfortable as well. After my half-marathon my body took a bit longer to recover than I thought so I decided not to run as much and took up swimming instead. Eventually winter came, it got too cold to swim outside... and life happened... Losing my main income pushed me to start my own business which was pretty scary and required million hours for learning, reading, planning etc. Lots of time went into it alongside with spending time with children and home duties of course needed to be done too. After a while of not exercising motivation was gone and with emotional eating kilos started to pile.
Now, 4 years later I'm in the same spot again - back to my 85kgs, unfit and lazy. Kids are older and can look after themselves more, business has been worked to a more stable position, marriage survived and seems to be in a good place. It is time to put myself higher at the list again, take care of my health so that I could keep taking care of others.
I had been struggling to find the motivation to start it once and again. I know I can lose weight and find time for exercise but I also know how much work it is to write down every bite, to make the changes into your life, to put your sneakers on and get out of the house instead of sitting on your bum and watching TV, eating anything you feel like whenever it comes to mind. I was thinking I have already been here, done that and wasn't able to maintain it so how could I motivate myself to go through it again but this time maintain my success as well.
After googling blogs of other people who have managed to maintain their healthy lifestyle I found a blog post of 15 habits of people who have been able to maintain their healthy weigh in Organize Yourself Skinny blog (http://www.organizeyourselfskinny.com/2014/03/25/15-habits-of-people-who-have-effectively-lost-over-20-30lbs-and-kept-it-off)
- Take your time to create good habits
- Prioritize your health by finding time to exercise and plan/cook healthy meals
- Keep doing it. For the rest of your life.
PLANNING is the big word. If you take time for planning, you will be successful. This is the phase I fail at most often. If I learn to take time for planning, I will start seeing consistent results.
