Yeah, yeah, I totally stole that from the Lonely Island movie. That’s sitting in a Netflix envelope on my family room entertainment center waiting for me to watch it this weekend, and when I thought about a title to convey not quitting, that’s all I could think of.
Today is my 37th birthday, and I have a great gift to give myself this year.
As I wrote about earlier in the week, I have officially committed to overhauling my lifestyle to get healthy once and for all. In that spirit of that, my present to myself is to do what it takes to be in the best shape of my life by 40.
Yes, you heard me right–40. That’s 3 full years.
In the past, there are two big traps that I have fallen into when attempting to lose weight.
1) Being entirely too restrictive with food and over-ambitious with exercise right from the start. As a result, after a couple of weeks I would binge or get be too sore to workout and just totally give up because I wasn’t being just perfect.
2) Sticking to a diet really well for a couple of months but the scale not moving much at all, causing me to get frustrated and quit yelling that “it’s not worth it.”
Logical? No. But that’s the pattern.
The worst part is that every time I do well and lose 10, 20, 30 pounds and then quit, I end up putting on even more weight even if I don’t eat more. It’s a viscous cycle and I have been stuck in it for my whole adult life.
This time I am breaking free by stick with these principles:
1) Making slow, controlled changes in my diet. For now, it’s just counting calories and sticking within the budget given on my LoseIt app. It says at that rate I can reach my goal rate by October 2018–two years away, losing 1-2 pounds a week.
Yes, 2-3 years is a long time, but I am making myself be OK with that. Previously, I would pick some upcoming event and think- “heck yeah- I can lose 50 pounds by then!” Well, it didn’t work and I always ended off worse than I started.
I will be more than happy with a pound or two a week. I even have a whole extra year of buffer time.
2. Slowly increasing my activity level from Current Status: Couch Potato to Goal Status: Weekend Warrior.
I am carrying around a lot of weight, and have been for a while. It hasn’t been easy on my body. I have several areas that act up (like a torn meniscus in my right knee). I want to get stronger without making those injuries worse, so I am going to do the slow and steady approach. First by just walking more and doing some basic body weight exercises, then building up to more intense cardio and heavy duty strength building.
I don’t really have the ambition to be an athlete. I just want to be strong and fit enough to do some outdoor adventures or maybe run a 5K with friends a few times a year. 
3. Never losing momentum. This is the biggest for me. Even if the scale stays stuck for weeks or I go to a party and eat something terrible–just stay the course and jump right back in. I will get to my goal if I just keep it up. Never stop never stopping 🙂
I’m excited and buzzing with energy and motivation to succeed. Documenting it here adds an extra level of accountability and encouragement. I am ready.
The 2016 to 2019 birthday comparison shots are going to be amazing!