Success is Never a Straight Line

I'm reaching the point where I can finally start to see some progress. It's strange, when others notice it too. I've been spending this month oddly proud and somewhat embarrassed. I was chosen by my health coach and gym to be their "member of the month". I wanted to make sure my blurb talked about persistence and really overcoming obstacles. I feel like that's all I've had. My write up mentions a few things I can now do (push ups, tricep dips), things I've done (lost some weight, gained some muscle) and some challenges I've had (car accident, surgeries etc). I will admit, it's a bit odd to see my picture in various corners of the gym. Thank god no one has approached me about it -- only my coworkers who also go to the gym there.


My shoulder and arm are still bothering me so I've been back to running and squatting. I've tried to pick up the dead lifts again too, as long as my back plays along nicely. I'm still mad at myself for not getting to a yoga class yet. I desperately need to stretch and my hamstrings/hip flexors pretty much want to stab me in the heart with a spoon. 

I'm feeling more and more like my old self again, and motivated. It's becoming more and more apparent how depressed I was and living under a cloud during 2012-2013. Things really picked up in late 2014, when I think my body finally started to balance out and my mind joined my team, instead of going against me. 

I've seen some friends come and go in their fitness journey. There have been good and bad times, personal records and times of being benched. I've been through it all too. I've been jealous in the past while I was recovering watching the posts of people always at the gym, their favorite class or doing fitness "double headers". I felt like it made the down time even worse, it was a FOMO for fitness. 

This image pretty much displays what the journey is. It's never a straight line. It's not easy. It takes a LONG TIME. You progress, you regress. You move up, you fall down. The key is to just keep moving. Now my scale isn't telling me great things, but fitting into pants from 3 years ago does. When I see a waist and wings where back fat used to be, that makes me feel better. 
path to fitness success

I've got my own road map as well that I track in my phone with these blog posts or pictures like the one here. The left is December, the right is this past week. It's not a huge difference, but changes are being made. I definite look more optimistic in the right too.




I guess what I'm trying to say is, stick with it. Six months from now you'll have a new bookmark in the journey. Look, I'm like a motivational speaker now.

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