9 weeks ago I weighed in at around 205 pounds. Today I weigh around 185 pounds. I knew I was out of shape for a while. I remember looking at my sister’s wedding photos and I just looked huge in it. It was my face, but the double chin was definitely noticeable and I was just chubby all over. Even then I didn’t do anything about it. Before I worked at a sales job so I had to stand for 7 hours a day and that kept my weight in check, but I also ended up eating more as well. After I ‘upgraded’ and got a desk job, my eating habit stayed the same and I just continued adding the weight.
I knew I had a weight problem around two years ago so I picked up jogging. I would run 6 laps around the local track three times a week and it worked pretty well. I tracked my weight everyday and watched what I ate. The weight came off fast. In a month I had lost around 10 pounds. I was so proud of myself that I was able to lose all that weight with just a month. I was also running much faster then as well and I know if I just give it a couple of more months then I’ll be at my ideal weight. But then it started to rain. For that whole month, it was sunny and I could run everyday but when the rain season came, I couldn’t run on that same track anymore. But instead of joining a gym and going on a track mill, I told myself I would wait until it’s sunny again. Then when it got sunny, I would be busy and I just didn’t have time to run anymore.
It got harder to go back to running again and I ended up just stopping all together. I would weigh myself every now and then. I even found myself losing weight the first week after I stopped running all together. I thought, oh maybe I don’t need to run anymore. I can lose weight without putting in the work. But then the diet slowly started to change, and I slowly returned back to my old eating habits. I would weight myself a few months after. I gained a couple of pounds. I would think to myself. Oh that’s not too bad. I can lose that after a few laps. Another a couple of pounds later I would gain a few more pounds. Until one year later I had regained all the pounds I had lost in that one month of running. Worse of all is I kept gaining weight and I started weighing more than when I first started last year.
So around two months ago I was walking up a few flights of stairs when I found myself winded. I used to live on the fifth floor of an apartment building and I used to take the stairs everyday. I was in pretty good shape all those years back. And I never got winded. But given that I was getting older didn’t help either. But I had never gotten winded from just a flight of stairs. I wasn’t happy with what I saw in the mirror, and I wasn’t happy that I can’t do anything simple like walking up the stairs without needing to catch my breath. I also was asked by a family member to move a cabinet over and I just couldn’t carry it anymore and ended up damaging it as I dropped it.
It was because I was so out of shape. I was unhappy with how I looked and how I couldn’t life heavier things anymore. But a lot of this is mental. I knew how hard I worked to run to lose that 10 pounds before but after a month I let myself keep myself from continuing what I was doing. I just stopped and it’s so hard to stop and then start up again. It’s so much easier to just keep going.
One day I was on youtube and found a 10 minute work out video by Coach Kozak from hasfit.com. It was only 10 minutes, I can do that. So I put it on my TV. And I just followed along. But there was a part in the middle of the video that really motivated me in continuing.
“It’s you vs you, you’re the only one holding your own weight.”
So I kept pushing and continued the workout.
“Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not worth it. Don’t let anybody tell you that can’t be skinny. Don’t let anybody tell you that will always be out of shape. This is you vs you. If you want it bad enough you can do it. Not going to happen on it’s own though.”
That really spoke to me. Nobody ever told me that I can’t be skinny at all or anything negative in my life. But a nagging voice in the back of my mind has. I would look in the mirror and tell myself you’ll never be in shape again. Or it’s just too hard. But this spoke to me. So I made a plan. I wrote it on my whiteboard that I would workout for 6 days straight 30 minutes each day for four months. My goal is to reach 160 pounds. I’m still at it and a little over 2 months, I have lost 20 pounds. I still have 25 more pounds to go. So I will have to keep at it. Losing the pounds wasn’t the only benefits so far. I have found myself stronger, and I no longer feel winded when I go up the stairs. I feel I can lift heavier things now and have improved to using 10 lb weights in each hand. It’s funny how heavy 20 lbs is and that’s how much weight I was carrying only two months before. I wonder if I can feel even better if I lost an additional 25 pounds.
But like Coach Kozak said, it’s not going to happen on it’s own though. Like everything else in life you got to work for it, but it’ll pay off at the end.
Here’s a link to that workout video by hastfit.com and see Coach Kozak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305SuH8tBZo
http://hasfit.com/
Willful Inspirations 