Over the last couple of years I have had many people ask me “What’s the hardest thing you deal with in your weight loss journey?” I’ve thought it was different things at different times, for the longest time it was battling the urge to eat the way I used and to turn to food when things got bad. It’s been almost 2 years but I think I have finally discovered the hardest part about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and that is complacency.
Being complacent is the thing that got me weighing over 400 pounds and incredibly unhappy and depressed. I became ok with the fact that I didn’t eat right or take care of myself , i was ok with not working out. That made the new-found discipline and drive I had to go shop for groceries and cook healthy food for myself very exciting. Also the drive I had to either get up and go the gym early in the morning or make myself go after work when none of us feel like going made me feel really good about myself. I truly felt like the Blake I had been for 29 years was gone and I was a different person.
Then came one of my finer moments when I broke my leg playing golf in November, yes we all remember that! I was forced to be more inactive then I would have liked to be for a while and for the first time in over a year and a half I put on weight and wasn’t happy about it. It took longer than I would have liked for me to feel comfortable and confident on my leg to work out on it and push it to the level I had been in the past. Over the last couple of months I have had moments of getting my fire back and wanting to get back in the gym and get back to my old routines that transformed my life. Even though I had my moments for the first time in 2 years I fell into my old habits and realizing that is very disappointing.
This weekend I have come to the realization that I have become complacent again for the first time since September 2011. I haven’t gone totally backwards which is something I am happy and proud about but I have become complacent. Lately I haven’t had the drive or the motivation to go to the grocery store or the gym. When I get off work in the morning I am tired and I want to go home and just lay on the couch and relax and I just stop by somewhere and pick up some food. Now thankfully for me I have made some serious life changes that has helped with this recent battle. Even with motivation leaving me and not doing a lot of cooking for myself or working out I have only put on 8 pounds and I am still wearing the same size clothes. It really set in for me on saturday when I felt my clothes getting tighter and that honestly pissed me off.
So the question is where do I go from here? The first step is being able to identify it that this is starting to become and issue and a problem for me again. The next step is making steps to change the behavior and I have start by doing it slowly. Just like two years ago I couldn’t make a life change over night and I can’t expect to change this over night. The difference between now and then is , in 2011 I was taking a leap off faith and hoping God would show me the strength to make a positive life change. In 2013 I know that i have that strength and I can make the needed change and I will make it.
Complacency can set in for all of us at certain times and it comes in a different way for all of us. For me it comes in my goals to live a healthy lifestyle for others it could come in being complacent in their careers and not pursuing better jobs. Maybe you get complacent in your walk with the Lord ( Something I am definitely guilty of as well) whatever it is you have to fight against that urge. Like everything else in this life it’s an ongoing battle and you can’t let yourself be complacent with bad behaviors or things that aren’t good for you. It will lead you to unhappy , unhealthy place in life , it’s a place I’ve been too and I won’t ever let myself get again. Don’t let yourself get there either.
