What you can expect.....

This morning, I got the chance to sleep in until 9am which is a very rare occurrence in my home. This was a well needed night of rest considering the fact that my sleep has not been so great lately. I keep tossing and turning and waking up every hour during the night. Its just been very restless sleep and I have been waking up feeling tired. But this morning was much different. Maybe I was just so exhausted from the lack of adequate sleep all week, that my body just made itself pass out all night. I don't know what it was, but it was some wonderful sleep-age! (no, thats not a real word). So, because I woke up so late and my normal "schedule" is a bit thrown off, I decided to make today my "Day Of Rest" and focus on nutrition and resting. (I also have a chapter or so to read and outline by 7pm tonight, so taking the day off will be a definite help with that as well). I'm still vlogging today, but now that I have some extra time on my hands, I wanted to write a blog update.

The topic of today's blog is what you can expect should you decide to enter into the battle of losing weight. I think its very important that everyone understand what they're getting into and what might happen to them when they're deciding, "Should I try to lose the weight?" The answer to that question (hopefully) is YES! I feel that I should be totally honest when discussing this topic and in doing so, you might learn a few things that you never knew about my journey thus far. I'm not shy to point out my short comings. Hey, I'm human (as are you) so lets be honest here and not paint a pretty picture because lets face it, weight loss is an ugly monster at times and we have to fight the good fight everyday.

What you can expect.....

Well, there's the obvious:

You can expect there will be pain.

There will be blisters.

There will be soreness of both muscles and soul.

There will be headaches, body aches, you name it.

Occasionally, there may even be some blood shed (nothing huge here, maybe a scrape or something).

Then, there are some things that you may not have thought of:

There will be tears along the way.

There will be days of depression and days of pure happiness. Always remember that our universe is made up of checks and balances. Remember that we would never know true happiness unless at first we have experienced sorrow.

Your struggle will be constant. Don't go into the journey thinking that its going to be "easy". For those of us (including myself) who are within our own journeys, "easy" is a word that we know no longer exists when discussing losing weight and becoming healthy.

You should expect to feel a twinge of jealousy here and there. This is one of those things that I'm being completely honest about. When I started my journey, I began it with my best friend. I saw her success and how slim she was getting, and there I was...still stuck at well over 200lbs. I began to get jealous of her success and feel like I was a failure. But then I did something that many people don't. I owned my jealousy. I told her about it, and she (as any best friend would) assured me that I was doing a great job and that I had much more work to do than she did. After all, I was coming from 260 and she was coming from 190. There's a big gap there. But the point is, you WILL feel a twinge of jealousy when you notice others' success with weight loss, or even just seeing those annoying people who can eat whatever they want and never work out and they still look healthy and fit. OWN YOUR EMOTIONS! Realize that your prize lies within these emotions, your prize lies within figuring out WHY you're feeling what you're feeling and OVERCOMING your self imposed limitations.

You can expect to fall down......A LOT! Both figuratively and physically (I can't tell you how many times I've fallen off that damn BosuBall at the gym...I hate that damn thing).

There will be times when your willpower will fail you. No one is perfect, therefore no one's eating can be perfect and no one's exercise can ever be perfect. Remember that 'Perfection' is not what we are striving for. What we strive for is a healthier, happier you! Perfection lies within the eye of the beholder. You can be happy with yourself at ANY weight, its all about the mental struggle and loving yourself first and foremost. Remember that you cannot expect to fully love another until you first love yourself. I truly believe that with all my heart.

Here's the good part:

What you will gain....

You will gain confidence.

You will gain self respect.

You will surprise yourself at your abilities and what you can accomplish.

You may even come to better understand yourself and what really matters to you in life.

You will gain friendships too! Reach out and find a community or a support system that is also dedicated to losing weight or becoming fit and healthy. You will find that these people become more like your family than your own family (in some aspects).

You will gain an improved self image. You will at some point realize that you are beautiful just the way you are.

You will DEFINITELY realize that those women in magazines and in the movies are NOT real.

You will learn that happiness doesn't lie within a number on the scale or within the size pants you wear. True happiness is a choice. Every day we make the decision to be happy or to be miserable. Please choose happiness. Wake up everyday and tell yourself, 'Today I'm going to smile. Today I'm going to be positive. Today I'm going to do my best." And its okay if that day doesn't end up being the best day. But at least you tried.

So, is this journey simple? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Is it a lot of work? YOU BETCHA! Are you going to get tired? YEP! At some point, are you going to want to give up? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! Is all that work, time and effort worth it? A THOUSAND TIMES, YES! YES! YES!

Consider this:

" Instead of giving yourself reasons why you can't, give yourself reasons why you can!"