Hot enough for ya'll (yes I use ya’ll from time to time….I feel that when talking about this ridiculous heat it’s perfectly fine to use some Okie slang!) yet?  SHEESH……Let’s put a call in to Gary England and ask him to make these triple digits go away!  Surely if he can predict the precise second a tornado is going to come tearing down Broadway, he can make this heat go away!

I wanted to give you a quick update since the last blog where I shared with each of you about my RMR and VO2 Max testing.  I’ve been blessed to get some great advice from so many people about these last 10 stubborn pounds.  After the metabolic testing at Weight Wise, some playing around with my calories, taking an entire week off training to heal my over-trained body and slowly adding back in the correct amount of exercise and changing up my exercises to incorporate high, moderate and low levels of intensity, those pounds are slowly melting away.  I’m almost there….  Some quick advice to those of you in the last part of your journey, I would say to do what feels right for your body and don’t be afraid of change.  Get the metabolic testing done if you can, and most importantly, be consistent in your attitude to not give up.  Which brings me to the topic of my latest blog—consistency and never quitting!

I feel like the last blog was in the weeds a bit, and a little too heavy on the science and not heavy enough about the absolute number one important part of a weight loss journey—the consistency, determination and never quit factor.  Yes, the science is important because I think when people actually see weight loss can be broken down to a game of mathematics, the other stuff that comes along with it doesn’t seem so overwhelming.  So, as I began to reflect upon my journey, and what has made me successful at this attempt of shedding my excess weight and getting fit for life, I thought about the key ingredient to that success and I believe it happens to be consistency.  Yes, training zones, calorie burn, resting metabolic rates and Vo2 max is an important part of the equation, but without the mental attitude of never giving up, no matter how frustrating the process becomes, it’s hard to have success.  Did you know that the majority of Americans who lose weight will regain it once, twice and often times more before they are ultimately successful at weight loss, and even then long term maintenance of actual weight loss numbers are simply les than stellar.  I am not ashamed to admit I am proof those stats are absolutely true. About six years ago, I was able to take off 60 pounds in roughly 6 months time.  I did it through portion control alone and did not step foot a gym.  Thus, I lost weight, but built no lean muscle mass which made it hard to maintain my weight once I started becoming lazy about portions again.   I also didn’t allow myself to go through the emotions of weight loss, I was merely a machine counting points, watching portion sizes and stepping on a scale each week completely content to only care about the numbers on a scale.  As a result, the 60 pounds came creeping back on, plus 40 more!

So what made it different this time?  Why did I care so much about “getting it right”  and where on earth did I find the key ingredient that was missing the last go round—consistency and the no-quitting-not-this- time attitude?  Partially it was my age.  I’m a little older this go round and my health, and not just fitting into size fours (which BTW, isn’t necessarily a bad thing) really concerned me.  Also, my physical training played a huge role in the mental part of this journey.  Each time I stepped in the gym and was able to run a little further, lift a little more weight, do a few more sit ups, complete ONE real push up (I couldn’t even do one before I started) I was empowered to believe I was strong enough to do anything to which I set my mind.  I then noticed the physical strength I was building in the gym was quickly transcending into other aspects of my life. Suddenly I noticed I was being consistent, not only in the gym, but all the way around.   I was able to tell people no and not feel guilty about it.  I was able to find my voice at work, with my friends and with perfect strangers.  I was consistent with my training, I was consistent with my nutrition and I was consistent with life and when I was consistent with those important aspects of my journey, the weight loss just seemed to be an after thought and I didn’t want to stop.  And I haven’t.  And I never will.  My journey is a never-ending one.  Even when I am at my ultimate goal weight, my journey does not end.  I have chosen not a diet, but a lifestyle. 

The science and math of weight loss to me, is the easy part.  The mental part….not so much.  But I believe that we as Oklahomans are strong.  Our strength can be found in our history, it’s rooted deep in our souls.  We have overcome great things to achieve the success we have had as a state.  We must take the strength we have used to grow our state over the last 100 years and use it to become healthy together.  I truly believe if there is a state or a city that can beat the obesity epidemic it is us!  We are doing well….we’ve lost more than 100,000 pounds since January!  Keep going OKC….Be consistent and never quit!