Make Progress or Make Excuses

Progress is not watching the scale plummet. Although it is wonderful, it is not always that easy. It’s not always easing into a pair of jeans that you bought for "one day". Rewarding as it is, it's not about taking your measurements and being completely blown away (as I was yesterday).

Progress my lovies is everything that gets you to that point.  Its every single foot in or out of place that has gotten you to where are right now. For anyone who has ever been on any significant voyage to wellness, you would know it ain’t effortless. Not in the least, or maybe that’s just me?

So what is progress really then? It’s finding yourself in KFC after a Park Run, (because there is nowhere else in the area to go to). Ordering coffee and being told all variants have milk in them, and as a result ordering nothing but a steaming cup of Rooibos Tea. Rooibos Tea, at KFC, think about that for a minute...  No matter how good that chicken smells, no matter how much your little heart aches, no matter that the heifer sitting next to you is enjoying every last bite of her KFC (for breakfast) you enjoy the s**t out of your tea, and want nothing more or less.

It’s being brave enough to try on a pair of trousers that are a size smaller than usual. I would love to say they fitted perfectly, but, with a little "encouragement" they did. The normal size? Oh that loser was too big. 

Progress is taking your workouts one day at a time, and giving each day everything that you have got. It is paying off more than I ever expected. I see my strength increase pretty much daily. I push hard, and I have tried new things, which includes things I never imagined I would be able to do. Today I feel like death warmed up, it's a protein day, my new foe and blood pressure issue seems to be doing its thing, and I suspect from all the sneezing I am coming down with the flu. But workout I will, and I’m going to smash it, because results speak way louder than excuses.

Earlier today, my colleague offered to hook me up with something from the café. Without thinking I shrieked and begged for Biltong. I handed over my hard earned $$$ and waited. Only to be hit with a shock wave of a feeling close to guilt and a lot like dread. Biltong would be a very bad idea, as it would undoubtedly and inevitably be filled with sugar and an entire list of things I’m trying to avoid. Thankfully the café is more useless than a pot roast at a bake sale, and I have my moolah back in my purse. *phew* Close call, and yes, this too is progress.

Normally I toddle along through life not concerned about what goes into my mouth, what workouts I don't do, oblivious to my spreading waistline, but apparently not anymore. Apparently I have changed, a lot.

Years and years of yo-yo missioning has meant that I'll lose 5kg's and pick up 2kg's. Lose 7kg's and pick up 4kg's. The last was a literal case of losing 12kg's and picking up 4kg's, because I never damn well hold it out.  I'm a total dork when it comes to this. I always think ooh you know I've lost 10 entire kg's it'll never come back, time for C A K E, and before I wipe the sheizze storm from my eyes I’m pretty much back to step one. 

The curtain has come down on this little dance. There is a new show in town. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Cha-Cha walks, but on the dance floor, not across stumbling blocks. For the first time in my entire life I have realised that come what may I am sticking to my guns. I will squat through any craving, and remind myself how shoddy I feel after a bowl of Creamy Saucy Pasta or plate of Fish and Chips with a side of grease, washing down by canola oil. I don't know where I've summoned the resilience from, but I feel it in every fibre of my being. No I’m not saying I pledge sobriety, or that I'll never eat anything out of line again. I am me, and I didn't become this fabulous by eating salad. I have learnt from my not so wise decisions, and I have made promises and commitments to myself.

If I can sit at a social table without a glass of wine in hand, I am making progress. If I can order a steak and salad when the wafting smells of pizza linger around me, I am making progress. If I can walk 5km's for the first time in forever, without taking a single break (other than to take a picture of a Springbok), I am making progress.

A friend of mine always used to crack me up and say: “With perseverance the snail also made in onto the Ark”. This is exactly what this journey is. My journey is me hauling ass whether it be it sprinting, walking or crawling. As long as I am chipping away a little every single day, I am making progress.