Numbers

It is easy to get caught up with the various numbers associated with the effort of becoming fit or maintaining fitness. And, with that, it is also easy to lose your way due to fixating on the numbers that matter less in the grand scheme of things.

Especially when starting out, seeing the number on the scale dwindling downwards motivates us, feeds our sense of accomplishment. But when things slow down and the weight loss gets tougher, we often become disappointed, discouraged, and lose perspective.

We lose traction in the larger war that we're fighting with ourselves by obsessing over a perceived lost battle.

The goal of getting fit and/or maintaining fitness is a life change based on multiple decisions that power a steady effort, day after day, across months and (preferably) years. You may have goals to reach, but there is no finish line - the pursuit is, by its very nature, ongoing. If the point is to be your best, then the idea is to work at it even after you've hit your target weight or fitness level.

Even on the days where you don't hit your step count, or don't increase your rep count, or don't nail your macros, but you still show up and make an effort, you are winning the race. You are outpacing the version of you that didn't want to put the work in. You are forging a better version of you than if you hadn't done those things to make yourself more fit.

That is progress that won't always show up on weigh days, or in the mirror, or with a set of calipers.

Regardless of what the voice of self-doubt may whisper in your ear, don't stop or give up - push yourself forward. If you don't have much to give, then give yourself enough grace to be OK with doing what you can, however little that may be, and realize that it is enough.

You may find renewed strength after you get things underway, but you'll never know until you take that first step forward.

Just keep moving forward, and don't ever, ever give up on yourself.

You are worth it.