The Temptation Of Success

I didn't know where to put this so it ends up here because I hope maybe it motivates somebody who's in a similar situation.

Quick background: chubby kid, got a desk job after high school, never got exercise, ate food to feel love, etc.

Last summer a good friend of mine wanted me to be one of his groomsmen. I had a strange epiphany: the pictures of this wedding were going to be seen by countless generations. This freaked the hell outta me. I didn't want to be the fat groomsman.

And so for the first time in my existence: I started eating healthy and going to the gym consistently.

I can't explain it, but I had the best mindset possible, I have no idea where it came from. I was super patient, I knew it was going to be a long journey. Any day I felt bloated or didn't look like how I thought I should, I shoved those thoughts away and got back into marathon mode.

And then I started to lose weight. And inches around my waist. And I started to get compliments.

The wedding came along and I was really happy with how far I got.

But December rolled around and I wasn't as disciplined as I normally was. I was cheating more often, eating under my caloric goal less.

I didn't gain too much weight back, but I started to realize that I was losing track of the journey and that the success had gone to my head.

And so beginning of the new year I re-evaluated where I was, where I wanted to be by the end of this year and I re-committed myself. Three weeks later and I'm currently wearing the jeans that I didn't know if I'd fit into (cause they were ten inches smaller than my gut at the time). But I'm still not there. And it's going to take the rest of this year probably. And that's fine. That's the journey.


A lot of us are in the same boat, we're training ourselves to new disciplines and that takes time. If you've been making gains, that's awesome, keep it going, don't be tempted by the allure of success. Get to the finish line, no matter how long it takes.