I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again

So, last week I only had my Monday Weigh In blog entry. And this week I missed my Monday Weigh In. What's up with that? Have I given up? Am I losing steam? In a word: No. However, I definitely hit a small stumbling block in my journey.

Last week, my grandmother passed away. And as I've made evident in previous posts, I'm an emotional and stress eater. And I had the perfect opportunity to "feed" that problem. As a strong part of Southern Hospitality, though I do understand it is done in some other parts of the nation as well, it is an absolute given that food will be provided for the family of the lost loved one through the funeral. So lunch and dinner was provided, every day, for several days, with enough leftovers for all the family to bring some back home.

The problem is, I'm in the south. And of course, as was expected, foods like potato salad, macaroni salad, pasta salad, macaroni pie, fried chicken, country ham, buttered corn, dinner rolls, and no less than a half a dozen different varieties of dessert appeared as our meals. Country cooking at it's best was available at my finger tips - in large quantities. And there were really no other options. So, I ate it. And by the end of things, I was not just indulging; I was overindulging.

So on Sunday, I did a preweigh in, and was not thrilled, but not surprised. On Monday, I weighed in, and was two pounds heavier than I was Sunday morning, which all told put me at 279.2. Discouraging. So I thought back...What did I do Sunday? I had an awesome food day and I started P90X. Was the two pounds just now catching up from the week or was it due to water retention from my muscles starting to be worked out? Who knows.

But here's the deal: weight loss is a journey. And the theme of the journey is a Japanese Proverb: Fall seven times; stand up eight.

Some may say that I'm showing weakness by stumbling and setting myself back so early in my journey. I'm here to say, that's when most failures happen. The beginning of the journey is about establishing a new lifestyle and teaching yourself new habits - and that's no easy task. I've spent ten years establishing and solidifying the lifestyle I've been living. It's not surprising that two weeks in, I had a relapse. And I can't tell you the number of times I have started a weight loss journey, made it to right here, stumbled, and accepted failure. Translation: I gave up. What is going to make any journey successful is seeing it to the end in spite of falling down.

This is me, dusting myself off, picking myself up, and continuing my journey. This is me doing Day 3 of P90X. And this is me setting new and tough challenges and goals for myself, because if I shoot for the moon, I may miss....but I'll still hit the stars!