Day 47...Successes and Setbacks

No journey is a straight line.

I've talked about this before and it remains true to me today. How wonderful it would be to simply say "I am going to lose 65 pounds" and head directly there.

But journeys of self-improvement are more like the game of snakes and ladders, we have some ups, some downs, and hopefully we eventually reach the top. Perseverance is the key.

My back injury has me sliding down the squares. It's immensely frustrating and at times feels like I'm going to be stuck for a long while.  My workout program is limited, I can't do karate, and I'm sore most of the time.

I met with my trainer ( Rob from www.trainersonsite.com) again this week to discuss our strategy, he made some more modifications, shifted my focus a bit and kept me thinking about the positives.

On the subject of positives, I stepped on the scale this morning. I know normally my weigh in happens in a few days, but I was curious how my week was progressing.

247lbs

I'm stunned. I had a bad week  last week, and while  I was refocused the past 5 days or so I didn't expect it to be quite that good. We'll see what the official weigh in looks like Tuesday, but that's pretty awesome.

In a non-scale victory I'm seeing more differences in performance as well. On Monday we were short on players for Hockey, which led to me playing centre for the first time in years. I expected I'd be coughing up a lung by the end of the 1st period, but I actually felt pretty good. I mean I'm still a lousy hockey player, but at least I wasn't an exhausted lousy hockey player!

Training injuries happen, backs, knees, ankles, wrists, whatever. If you are trying to change your body your body gets a very Newton' First Law attitude and tries to stay at rest. The key thing is to keep focusing on what you can do, keep plugging away at it, relish the small victories and the big changes will take care of themselves.

It is the same with all endeavours, expecting smooth sailing is to invite disappointment. Disappointment can lead to giving up.

Expect it to be hard, expect it to be a struggle, and expect it to be worth it in the end.

Keep trying everyone!