Finding the strength within

I have spent the last 4 months making many sacrifices.  Food choices, partying with my girl friends and exercising at an obscenely early hour of the morning.  These sacrifices have lead me to a better place - physically, emotionally and mentally.  These sacrifices are part of my daily life.  These sacrifices are difficult, but necessary.

There are times when I think that I can't do something while on this journey.  For example, giving up birthday cake at a kids birthday party.  How can anyone pass up birthday cake.  It's not something that you eat every day and it is ohhhhhhh so good.  Birthday cake for Peter's sake... passing it up is more than difficult.  But passing it up is necessary.  

Throughout this journey I have had to rely on the strength that I have found within.  My inner strength, the desire to do something great with myself throughout this journey.  The desire to achieve my goal weight.  The desire to be a healthier and happier person.  The little Sam inside that continued to push and coax me on as the reality Sam thinks that I have to give up.  You see, to the little Sam inside, giving up is never an option.  

Find your inner strength, we all have it.  This inner strength can lead you to great things.  This inner strength can be fueled by a motivational factor.  Smaller clothes, better health, able to keep up with the kids, being a positive role model, or whatever you may find to be that motivator.  But use that motivator each time you feel that you just can't do something.  For me personally, the biggest motivator right now is to be down 75lbs by my 49th birthday.  Being down that many pounds will put me under 200lbs for the first time in 17 years.  This is a HUGE motivator for me and each day I remind myself of it.  This motivator really helps to ignite my inner little Sam and remind me why I have to do what I am doing each and every day.

Anyone and everyone has it in them to make the changes that they need to get healthy.   Everyone is able to do what I am doing, it is just a matter of finding that inner strength and your motivators to keep you going.  

Perfect... negative self talk

This past week I began working out.  I joined a gym (the local YMCA) and set a goal for myself of going to the gym to work out at least 3 days each week.  I think it is important for me to be realistic (3 days a week) but also serious about getting myself healthier and continuing on this weight loss journey.  Going to the gym has actually turned into something that I enjoy and over the first week I made it there 6 days.  Now 2 of those days were shortened days (only 40 minutes to spare) but I am still excited that I made it there!  

So while I complete my "workout" I listen to music on my iPhone.  While listening the other day the song F***** Perfect (or the cleaned up version is called Perfect) by Pink came on.  I really started to listen to the words and it was an eye opening experience.  The song talks about negative self talk and the view that you should have of yourself.  The song was talking about me!  There have been so many times that I negative talk myself (your thighs are so disgusting, your butt is huge, you won't ever lose the weight, people stare at you because you are so huge, etc.).  This negative self talk has allowed me to stay in the same path for as long as I have.  You see it's easier to stay the same and listen to that inner negative voice than it is to make the necessary changes and stop listening to the inner you.  

But like I said, the song also reminds you that you need to stop all the negative and begin to believe in yourself.  That isn't an easy thing to do, especially when you have been listening to the negative for 30+ years, but it is very important in order to make the necessary changes that need to be made.  So I am trying each day to find one thing that I can be positive about regarding myself.  Whether its a good hair day, or the color of my eyes, or the fact that I did 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, I am finding those positives and focusing on them.  

One final thing that has really helped me to remain so focused and positive about what I am accomplishing is the impact that I see my journey making on others.  So many people have reached out to me to encourage me along in my journey or to tell me that they are making changes in their own lives because of what I have done.  This is a huge boost to my confidence and also makes me feel wonderful about the blog and posting everything on Facebook.  It is hard for me to admit that I am extremely overweight (and yes I know that's pretty darn obvious) but knowing that someone or anyone has read this blog or my posts and they want to make changes is amazing and encouraging to me.  So thank you to everyone for your continued support.   Thank you for helping me to get rid of the negative voices and replacing them with the positives.