Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Second Chances...


Another year. One whole year gone by....

Amazing what kinds of things can happen, or not happen, in a year.

The last time I posted here, I had grand designs on 2011 and all that I would achieve. I was heady with the successes of my weight loss and charity fund raising. I was tearing it up. And I was gonna keep going...

Let's just say that 2011 was NOT a year of achieving my fitness and health goals. Not only did I not do the Cooper River Bridge Run, but I pretty much dropped out of running all together for the majority of the year. I allowed an aggravation (stress fracture of my foot) to become an excuse that lasted long after I had healed.

As for the USMC PFT, I started the pull-up workout by purchasing a bar that works in a doorway. I got it assembled and hung it up. Beyond that, not much there. No real progress on the sit-ups or push-ups either.

And then, to top it all off, I bailed out of the LiveStrong approach to losing weight that had been so successful for me before. In about March, I read "The 4 Hour Body" and liked the look of what it had in there about weight loss and muscle gain. I did pretty well for about 6 to 8 weeks with it and then found ways to "cheat" the program. Of course, I was only cheating myself....

By Thanksgiving 2011, I had gone from a low of 216 lbs (around Christmas 2010) to right at 240 lbs. Not the right direction....

So what does it mean now? It means I lost focus and need to get it back. My goal is still to get below 200 lbs. I'm targeting the end of 2012 for that. I should be able to average less than a pound a week to make that. I'm setting up my LiveStong account to count calories as if I was going to do 1.5 lbs per week to see how that works for a couple of months.

I'm disappointed in myself and I know that these set backs are not permanent. They don't define who I am or what I can do. I see my successes in the past and know what I am capable of.

So, as I start of 2012, I'm taking a second chance. We all get them. We don't all give them. And many of us won't take them.....

How was your 2011? Do you need to take a second chance?

Logo/image credit to Designhuone.net

2 comments:

Greg said...

I'm glad you've decided to start anew in 2012. It is so easy to get discouraged when things don't go like we planned. For Michelle and me, 2011 was a very discouraging year.

But, 2012 is new.

I was already losing weight at the end of the year with My Fitness Pal www.myfitnesspal.com (an absolutely great tool), but there are other things I'm hoping to accomplish in 2012.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Bubba said...

Thanks for the comment, Greg.

It's good to hear I'm not the only one that falls down or gets discouraged. It seems like most (if not all) people only share the "I'm great" stuff (whether it's real or not in some cases).

I will be praying for y'all, my friend.