Starting again – not where I wanted to be after all the hard work done over the last few years. Unfortunately, I slipped and find myself on the way back to where I was, which is somewhere I never wanted to find myself again!
The reason why I started this blog in the first place was to be held accountable for all my lifestyle changes and to have a sounding board on where to be able to steam all my frustrations, successes and failures, but it is hard to keep it up when life gets in the way. What can I say – I dropped the ball, hard.
I can make a million excuses to explain why, but the honest truth is that I got lazy and took things for granted.
Since my last post in November of 2019, when I wrote I’d be starting over again, I did make some great strides to improve my health and overall lifestyle. Lost about 80 lbs and got in the best shape I’d been in over 10 years, however since middle of 2021, I have gone back to my unhealthy habits, stopped working out and have put on about 20 lbs back.
I’ve been afraid to step on that scale for months as I’ve seem my body gain the weight back. My self confidence is immediately affected, which affects not only my professional life but my personal one as well. Not feeling confident about how you look and imagining what people think of you only causes me to retreat more and not want to go out and be seen.
Not all has been bad. My partner and I have grown our Interior Design and Home Staging business and are now nationally recognized and I’ve also moved on from my 9-5 jobs as an engineer and now are dedicating my time to our business and my new career as a real estate agent. I love this but it’s added a lot of stress and worry to my life. I want our business to be even more successful and we’re dedicating a lot of time and resources into making it so, but as I’ve mentioned on previous posts, stress only adds to my bad habits since I am an emotional eater. I eat everything in front of me. Food comforts me, but at the same time it’s only a momentary moment of comfort because right afterwards I feel so guilty. It’s a vicious cycle.
The reason why I decided to resume my blogging is the same as it was in the beginning. I need to be held accountable and putting these words on a public platform (even if no one reads them) is a big thing. I am vulnerable and flawed but I can do better. I have to do better!
This year i’ll be turning 40 years old so now is the time to refocus and re energize my health goals and start again. My challenge this time around will be to find a balance between my every day life and fitness goals so that I don’t feel burned out again or so restricted that I’m constantly feeling like I’m at the edge of a cliff and risking falling off and into bad habits again.
I plan to get some help from a nutritionist and fitness advisor this time around and see how that goes. Food is what I struggle with the most. I like food, I like to eat and I know it’s stupid to say I want to lose weight without having to restrict myself so much but I know there’s a way to make that work. I will start working out again 3-5 times a week, but I think that this time around I really need to get my eating habits under control if I want to be successful at achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
Please stay tune as I move forward with this journey, AGAIN!
Until next time! – Luis