4 Week Health Challenge: Day 28
This is it folks. Your last challenge. Four weeks has gone by, and I hope that I’ve helped you make some healthy changes in your life, or at least re-introduced some that you may have lost over time in the craziness of life.
Your very last challenge is this:
Cut yourself a break, then keep plugging away.
Those of you who were participating in the DietBet game I hosted did so with the hope of losing weight and winning some money. Many of you were successful, some others (myself included) didn’t hit that 4% weight loss goal.
This doesn’t mean you failed. Not even by a long shot. If you’ve made some positive changes in your life and are now living a healthier way of life then you are still a winner. Sadly, I cannot afford you pay you prize money like the others will be getting, but please don’t let that discourage you.
Some of you really pushed yourself to lose the 4%, and cut out a lot of things you enjoy eating in order to do it. That was fine and great for the short term, but I really believe that life isn’t worth living if you can’t enjoy a cookie if you want to. Having said that, please wait until after your final weigh in has been accepted and you have been declared a “winner” before you start eating that cookie!
And then there are those of you who have participated even though you were not part of the Dietbet. I’ve heard from some of you that you’ve lost weight, others who have re-introduced some simple (healthy) behaviours into their life, and over all have heard feedback that everyone is feeling pretty good. I couldn’t be more pleased!
But whomever you are, this isn’t the end. You can’t simply stop drinking water, eating vegetables, exercising and all of the other healthy habits we’ve been putting into action over the past 4 weeks. You have to keep plugging away. I’ve said it many times that big changes happen through small changes.
If you are still trying to lose weight, lower your cholesterol or increase your fitness level, you have to keep going even when you hit your goal. Certainly you can be a little bit more relaxed about it, but I really hope you won’t have a couple bad days and throw everything away. Have your bad day – or week – then get back on the horse.
It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down. What matters is how many times you get back up.
Any of you that know me know that I teach a lot of fitness classes (14 classes this week alone). My normal behaviour is to eat everything I can get my hands on. I’m a hungry girl. Over Christmas I was off for nearly 2 weeks. I happily ate all the treats and candy I wanted. I gained 10 pounds. Normally I lose all of my holiday weight very quickly, but this year I haven’t. In fact, over the past 4 weeks while I’ve watched all of the other participants of the Dietbet losing weight each week I ended up losing a total of 0.5lbs. I’ve been following along with all of my own challenges, and have been recording my food intake and trying to stay around 2000-2200 calories/day which seemed like a reasonable amount. The weight hasn’t come off. In fact, someone asked me on Friday if I was pregnant (True story. And when I said, “no,” she asked me if I was sure, because I look pregnant. Yes. I’m 100% sure.). It’s not that I’m fat, but I’m certainly bigger than I have been in the recent past. I would say in the fall and up to December I weighed too little for my height, so I really only want to lose 3-5 pounds max. I really believe that I’ve been restricting myself too much in what I eat, and that’s why I haven’t lost weight. Even though 2200 calories seems like a lot, when you are burning 1000-1500/day in exercise it really isn’t that much.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed that I haven’t yet lost the weight, but I know I will. And whatever your goal(s) is/are you need to know you too will achieve them. 4 weeks is a great start for a healthy life, but 4 weeks doesn’t make a healthy life. It just helps put you on the path for one.
So please, cut yourself a break, and then keep plugging away.
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I am in a Diet Bet right now too. I am not sure if I will make it or not (I need to lose 7 pounds) as I currently am on track to lose only 5 or 6 pounds. However, I am think positive. This showed me I can dropped extra pounds, can make smarter food decisions, and can eat less calories if I eat better foods.
Abby @ BackAtSquareZero recently posted..A Brilliant Run Buddy
They asked me to host this one, and I knew I’d never “win” as 4% of my body weight is more than I would even want to lose. My downfall isn’t eating, it’s how much exercise I do. When you teach 3 high impact calorie torching classes most every day your body doesn’t always play nicely. You’re doing the Fitfluential dietbet right? You’ve still got time to pull the 7pound weight loss off!
I love this post! I really need to hear this–I hit a “plateau” this week and was super bummed! Thanks for being so inspiring!
Ashley
The Lives of Fit Teachers
Ashley recently posted..Welcome!
Don’t be bummed! Even during successful weight loss you’ll have weeks when you don’t lose weight. It’s tricky business. It seems like it should be simply a matter of eating less than you burn but there is a very delicate balance between eating too little to lose weight effectively and eating just enough. You can do it!