You gotta believe

If I've learned anything through out this process of losing weight and getting healthier is that it's more of a mind game than you want to believe. The very first step I had to make, the first step we all have to make, is to believe in yourself and know you can do it. The biggest obstacle you will face is not the grocery store, or finding the time to work out, it's your thoughts. 

Dare I say that most of us battle some inner demons that try to convince us we can't do what we want. "You'll never lose the weight, why do you even bother?" is the thought rolled around my mind for years and years. It's why I was fat for eight years, because I didn't really believe I could do it. Repeated failures had convinced me that I was doomed to being the fat girl forever. I would cry myself to sleep at night and break down in the dressing rooms at stores while shopping for clothes because I hated how I looked, but felt helpless to change it. That's where I was wrong, I wasn't helpless. None of us are powerless to change ourselves. Nobody can stop you, but you and you have to get over that mental road block of "can't" before you will get anywhere. 

I think it's the easiest thing in the world to say you're going to do something, but taking that next step and doing what you say you're going to do is an entirely different story. If you're anything like me that little voice is always there nagging me, "You can't do it! You're never going to get there. There's too many pounds to lose. You're worthless." I had to push through those negative thoughts and keep reminding myself every day that I COULD do it. One decision at a time, one meal at a time, one work out at a time, I DID it, and am still doing it. I think I've shocked a lot of people who didn't believe that I could do it, and I love that. I'm not even sure my husband believed I could lose as much as I've lost, but he's learned now not to underestimate me. Nobody is going to tell me what I'm capable of, I decide that, no one else. 

It kills me when I see or hear people say, "I wish I could be like you, I wish I had your dedication, but I just don't." I want to scream at them, "YES YOU CAN!!!!" You CAN do it, but nobody is going to do it for you. You have to want it more than you want anything else. And you've got to believe that you DO have the strength and power to push through the negativity. It's not going to happen over night, you will not wake up tomorrow fifty pounds lighter. It takes work, you have to realize that. But you also have to realize that it is worth it, so VERY worth it. My hope is to help people understand that and start believing that what they think is impossible is possible.