Celebrate Your Wins -Big or Small!

We are at the end of June, month six of 2015. Officially halfway through the year. Does knowing that excite you? Or does it feel daunting? I’m sure the answer is reflective of your current mental state, but I’m not a doctor. I understand if it feels daunting, especially if you’re fitness resolutions were lost somewhere around March. To be frank, I have a propensity for negative self-talk. It’s been like this for me ever since I was a small child. It’s something I work very hard on to not get me down or hold me back from life. So when I recently finished week four of C25K and realized it’s taken me nearly four months to complete four weeks, my first inclination was to get negative.

But then I stopped myself. I pivoted my internal conversation.

“Hey Bekka, we’re six months into 2015 and you can run for 5 minutes straight,” I said to myself.

Being able to run/jog for that long is a stamina that was unimaginable to me in January. I also carried my 50 lb niece on my back for a quarter of a mile on a sunny day where the temperature was in the high 80’s. The only reason why I didn’t carry her further was because she asked me to put her down. My mother was with me pushing my nephew in a stroller and she was astonished by my endurance. Being able to carry a small child on my back totally places me on team Zombie Defense.

Both of these accomplishments are major wins in my book, although they might seem small to others. I’m sharing about my negative self-talk and small wins, because I get how looking at fitness accounts for inspiration can trigger those negative voices. Those momentary feelings of inspiration you feel get drowned out by your own toxic voices, discrediting  your own progress. I want to tell you that you should celebrate your wins – big or small. Celebrate that you are still dedicated to your health and fitness goals. If you’re on a fitness journey, remember it’s a journey. Becoming the person who makes working out a priority and LOVES eating greens instead of potato chips will take some time. The zombie apocalypse hasn’t hit yet, so I still have time to build up my defense skills.

For the rest of the year I want to hit my fitness and health harder. I want to improve my quality of sleep with a solid bed time routine, push myself to take a workout class or two, and especially eat better. I hate the word diet, but I’m referring to eating habits and not restriction. My diet is a mess. I’m constantly placing my mind and body on a roller coaster because of my bad eating habits, I’ll eat breakfast and then go hours without food to then eat a cheeseburger and french fries for dinner. I cringe just knowing how terrible that is for my blood glucose levels. But I can always improve. I’m still a work in progress. Wait, have I said that before?

Thank you to everyone who has commented or read my stories over the last six months. I can run for 5 minutes now! YAY! I am stronger than I believe -or better yet…I am strong, believe it!