Choices.
Life is full of them.
What to wear? What to have for breakfast? Which way to go to the shops? What workout to do? What to have for dinner? Where to go on holiday?
So far this year I have remained Pringle-Free (for ’23!), my resolution for the year!
I’ve also remained Chocolate-Free (‘22’s Resolution) and yes, we’re on day 10 of the year that I can have chocolate again, except I have chosen not to.
I haven’t eaten sweets since September, because the boy challenged me not to eat them the whole time he’s in Year 4 at school. If I really wanted to have them I could just give in, I mean there have been times when I have sniffed the back of Percy Pigs admittedly, but I choose to stick to something I said I would do, because what’s the harm in sticking to something I’ve agreed to do?
Years ago I looked and lived very differently to how I look and live today. This before picture is almost 8 years old now….it was taken in the March….I was finally accepting of the fact that I needed to make a change because I was miserable of how I looked, how I felt, how I was behaving. It actually took another 5 months before I started to do something….I joined a gym – somewhere I had never stepped foot in before, because I didn’t know what else to do after WW had failed me!
Within 12 months I was 5st lighter and had discovered a love of exercise that I didn’t know was possible, my body could do things I didn’t know it was supposed to, I looked a way I didn’t realise I was entitled to look and then I even discovered there’s a wonderful world of food that I didn’t know existed, or didn’t know I would ever be able to eat, let alone cook!
Change doesn’t all happen at once. To get results you have to make changes and you have to be consistent if you want changes to be sustained.
My diet before I started my “journey” was horrendous. I had a near 2yr old, I didn’t eat breakfast, I drank tea and coffee all day with 2 sugars for added measure. I ate meat at dinner time and usually drowned that in a sauce in a jar and I’d also have a bar or 2 of chocolate/sweets and I will readily admit that most days around 2pm I’d be found in a coffee shop having a drink and a slice of cake with the boy!
Acknowledging that I had to change my eating habits was easily one of the first things I had to address. I didn’t go all-in. I actually decided the first month that I would stop drinking Soft Drinks…just for the month. I’ve never had a soft drink since!
After that? I gave up Midget Gems for a month….the one thing I could eat without thinking….I’d easily eat a bag a day, 400cals at least….was it any wonder that the 2nd month I saw a weightloss? And guess what? I haven’t had Midget Gems since!
Now my diet is not now perfection; I’m a Personal Trainer who still has the sweetest tooth imaginable….before Christmas I was eating jars of Biscoff Spread to myself….DIRECT FROM THE JAR! A packet of Pringles would last just over a day – I can quite easily mindlessly eat a wedge of them.
My vice is that when it comes to sweets I am still all or nothing…..I can’t open a bag and have a couple and forget about them….once that bag is open they aren’t there the next day.
I am proof that you can change habits of a lifetime, I choose every day not to go back to where I was before, not to become one of life’s Yo-Yo Dieters. I don’t eat cake every day, in fact it’s rare for me to have 1 piece a month these days. I could if I really wanted to, but I prefer how I feel and look about myself now, I like being able to go into a shop and not have to reach for the size L/16-18. I like being able to run, to lift weights, to feel happier and confident about myself. My dietary habits before were not conducive to how I like being today, so I choose to sustain certain changes.
Of course I still have “treats”, I’ve switched from slabs of cake to fruit bars which taste of Cherry Bakewells or Blueberry Muffins, or I might have a big gingerbread, I’ll have a Krispy Crème Donut – it’s just I’ll choose a glazed one and not one laden in thick, gloopy icing, filled with sugars. Lifestyle changes do not have to mean deprivation.
I choose to go to the gym or to do a workout at home because it makes me feel good. It didn’t always, for years I would never have ever considered exercising, yet it’s one of my absolute favourite things to do. I chose to keep at it when it got difficult, I chose not to give up.
If, like I was, you aren’t happy with the way you look, the way you feel about yourself, your habits, your lifestyle, then make a change. Choose to finally make that change and choose to stick to it.
Need help in getting started? That’s what I do, find a plan that you are happy to stick to, that you’re happy to do at home, that will get you moving.
You just have to be prepared to start and believe that this time you really can do it. I promise it is worth it.
To arrange a no-obligation chat to discuss finding a plan to work for you then please get in touch - info@gymima.com or call 07584 414124. I look forward to hearing from you.