Sunday, January 17, 2010

We CAN do this

It's easy to let life get in the way of taking care of ourselves.

Seven years ago I buckled down and lost 95 pounds. My goal was 100.

I was so close. Then Hurricane Wilma hit my part of the country.

Stress, extra work, restricted access to my preferred places to walk threw me off track and unfortunately, I didn't get back on. I lost motivation.

I regained a big chunk of the weight I'd lost.

Of course I'm kicking myself.

So here I am, determined to lose weight and get in shape - again.

Once you reach your goal, don't let yourself get complacent. If something stressful happens and you fall off the wagon, dust yourself off and get back on.

By luck, I stumbled upon this challenge. I promised myself to walk at least a couple miles daily from now on. I also promised myself to be careful what I put in my mouth.

Then disaster struck. Of course you know what's going on in Haiti this week.

I work for a charity that's been helping Haiti for the past 27 years, that has personnel in Haiti, that still has people missing in Haiti. Since the earthquake, we've been working 13 hour days with barely a break. After coming off such a long shift, all I can do is drive home and fall into bed so I've not kept my promise.

Sometimes life happens. It's inevitable.

But things will get back to normal. When they do, and every time from now on, I will pick myself up and dust myself off and do what is necessary to be healthy. I won't throw up my hands and say, "What's the use? I can't do this."

I CAN do this. We CAN all do this.

I want to thank Trish for motivating us to be the best we can be.

Ashley
http://www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com

5 comments:

Sandy Nawrot said...

Been there, done that on the gain, lose, gain, lose. Gets frustrating. I even went years saying I didn't care and I didn't have the energy to deprive myself! Now I'm back on the bandwagon too. One of these times, I'm going to figure out they key to keeping it off! Nice post Ashley!

Kim Frazier said...

Keep up the good work Ashley. I think all of our struggles with weight come from taking such good care of others and losing ourselves along the way. Hang in there! Stress like life happens and then goes away! We need to take care of ourselves first so we can take care of others! You can do it!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I'm kind of going through this right now as my doctor told me I shouldn't work out for 2 weeks (in addition to the 2 previous weeks I didn't work out). I'm thinking--100 miles! I can't do that in 2 months! But I CAN. And you guys have been such an inspiration to me.

Best wishes to you, Ashley. I think one of the biggest roadblocks to weightloss or acheiving fitness goals is convincing yourself that you CAN. Once you know you can, you're one step ahead of the game.

Juliann said...

There will always be something getting in the way - for me it is the weather so I am glad to have found some exercise dvds that I like. And the group support is awesome!

alisonwonderland said...

Great post, Ashley! Yes, we can!