Summer 2009 WILL Be Different Challenge!

FROM THE WEIGHT WATCHERS WEBSITE!
http://www.weightwatchers.ie/WWI_Controller.aspx?Page=1017862

How long is long enough to be doing something before deciding it's time to give up? Now there's a strange question to begin a motivational article with – or is it?
Losing weight, just like any other change we make, doesn't happen overnight or in a straightforward manner so it's not unusual for people to sometimes doubt themselves and consider giving up.
Let's say, for example, you have decided you want to learn how to drive.
LESSON 1:

1. First of all you need to make a definite decision that you are going to learn.
2. Next, you need your provisional driving license.
3. Now you need to find someone reputable to teach you how to drive.
4. Initially you will feel very excited and proud of yourself to have gotten this far.
5. Behind the wheel for the first time, most people feel excited and nervous in about equal measure.
6. You check the mirrors, turn on the car and.......the engine cuts.
7. You feel a bit unsure and perhaps even a bit silly
8. The instructor reassures you and you try again
9. And again (feeling less confident)
10. And again (thinking, “This is ridiculous, I can't even get the car started!”)
11. You find the 'bite' and the car takes off.
12. You relax a little bit and start to feel hopeful that you might actually be getting somewhere.
13. Your instructor tells you that time is up and “See you next week”

Twelve steps so far and you have only completed the first lesson and moved the car maybe 50 metres down the road. Not the glorious start you had thought it would be.
But do you give up?
LESSON 2:
It takes a couple of tries to get the bite, which you do and now you start learning all about changing gears, indicating, staying in your lane etc. Under your hands the car chugs, jumps, moves slowly etc. Your knuckles are white as you grip the wheel. You wonder how on earth anyone ever manages to co-ordinate their movements so that they can actually drive properly. You wonder if you'll ever get the hang of it and you can't even bring yourself to imagine driving in city traffic. But do you give up?
LESSON 23:
Weeks have gone by and you are still using 'L' plates. You think that by now you should be happily driving around, full licence in your pocket, feeling like you are king – or queen – of the road, but you aren't. There's no doubting that you have learned a huge amount about driving a car; in fact you never knew there was this much to know about driving. In your innocence you thought that all you had to do was sit in, turn the key and take off. You still aren't 100% you know all the rules of the road. You wonder if you will ever achieve your dream having a full drivers licence. Sometimes you feel more than a little disheartened.
But do you give up?
Why not? Why don't you give up after lesson 1 or 2 or 23? What stops you settling for buses or taxis? So what if you don't drive, it's not the end of the world, is it? Originally you thought that learning to drive would be a smooth progression from step 1 to step 2 to step 3 etc but along the way you learned that it was more a case of ' One step forward, two steps back'. But still you didn't give up.
And why didn't you give up? Because....

1. Learning to drive was something YOU really wanted
2. You wanted it enough that you accepted the challenges along the way
3. In your minds eye you could see what the future held for you IF you could drive
4. You wanted that future more than the future where you couldn't drive

I bet every driver reading this article can relate to the descriptions I've just written. Even people who don't drive can appreciate how learner drivers could feel like this. No one, absolutely no one ever expects a person to learn how to drive in a straightforward, no-looking-back manner.
So why is it that we cannot give ourselves the same time, space and understanding when it comes to losing weight? Yes, some people take to driving very quickly while others seem to take an age, but they both get their licences in the end, if they both stick with it. In the same way, some people lose their weight quickly while others take longer – but they both get to goal weight so long as they don't give up too soon.
Along the way to goal weight, you may have taken a break, lost your way, even lost faith in your own ability. None of that means you have given up. You may have gone back to a number of your old habits, but very few people give up all the good habits they've learned so far. If you are reading this, envying people who are still on the road to goal weight, wishing you hadn't 'given up', then show yourself a little of the compassion and understanding you so readily show other people.
Don't beat yourself up or put yourself down. Stop judging yourself, because no one else is. Everyone who cares about you, including your Leader, wants you to be happy and living the life you want, not the one you settled for.
Next time you feel tempted to 'settle' for something you don't really want repeat this little mantra:

“To start again I must begin from where I'm AT– not where I've BEEN”

FROM THE WEIGHT WATCHERS WEBSITE!
http://www.weightwatchers.ie/WWI_Controller.aspx?Page=1017862

Summer 2009 WILL Be Different! we have to stick with it :flowerforyou:

how is everyone doing this week? so lazy this week, will be finished my college course in 4 weeks, then i can concentrate on my fitness levels again! so many assignments to do and i have no motivation when it comes to anything this week! :grumble:

realta,

i'm doing good. I'm almost in the final two weeks of my bikram 60-day yoga challenge (16 days to go) and I'm both tired and charged by it. I like how my body is toning. My mind keeps telling me i need a break.

that is so amazing, well done :flowerforyou:

wk 0 - 177
wk 1 - 176
wk 2 - 174.8
wk 3 - 174.2
wk 4 - 173
wk 5 - 172
wk 6 - 171 :bigsmile:

slow and steady is my motto every week i think, would love a 2 pound weight loss next week to get into the 160's, gotta try much harder :happy:

i hope you all had a great week, will post challenges later tonight when everyone has weighed in, and remember our CHECK IN is in 3 weeks, on the 30th April, how close are we to meeting our personal goals? i want to be at/under 168 and i want to fit into a new black shirt that i have, cant wait! :drinker: