Set goals for yourself that you can achieve. Keep them in front of yourself and put reminders around you of the goals that you are working toward. It is often so easy to slack off the commitment you've made to yourself because, if you're trying to lose weight, there might be brownies on the counter or snacks in the fridge and after all what will one hurt!
But if you have something really important to yourself and you said it as your goal to achieve it can really provide the incentive you need to stick to your goal and follow whatever protocol it will take to get you to that goal.
As an example, many of you had known that I had recently broken my right knee cap due to taking fall After Fall on it. I went back to my orthopedic surgeon who was brilliant enough to say let's not operate let's just put it in a immobilizing splint for 6 weeks and stay off of it as much as possible. At the end of six weeks the X-ray showed the unbelievable news that my knee had healed itself. You could see the hairline fracture on the X-ray and as a cloudy line but the knee was back to its normal self. The swelling was gone as was most of the pain in the knee. I got permission to start to use it more and more, but of course I didn't tell the surgeon that I hadn't had the splint on in 3 weeks and I've been using it on my own. I had even been on my recumbent bicycle a time or two on it. Now that isn't the best example to follow I freely admit it so don't follow in my footsteps. Do as your doctors and your surgeons say not as I did. Oops. So with permission to start using my knee more and more of course the first question that popped out of my mouth was can I start riding a horse again. My surgeon hesitated a bit but after I assured her of the quietness of our horses she gave me permission to start slowly. ( Like I know the meaning of that word.)
So with my goal and my mindset is riding before the end of the Fall I knew I had several things to accomplish. First I had to lose at least 25 pounds that I had picked up since last year. It's easy to eat when your leg is immobilized and not be able to get up or move around much at all so the weight goes on. I am happy to report that I am already down 14 lbs. It's amazing what wanting to ride a horse bad enough will do to encourage my snacking to end.
Second goal that I set for myself is to strengthen my legs before I try to ride again. To move in that direction I have been on my recumbent bicycle every night for the past 8 days and I am currently doing an easy 40 to 45 minutes a night on the bike. Not only is it strengthening my knee it is also bringing much-needed muscle tone back into my legs. The third and final thing I have worked on is my arm strength. I know I need to be able to mount my horse and thus have the legs underneath me in the arms above me with enough strength to pull myself into the saddle. I'm simply right now using 2 lb weights and doing reps with each arm and using resistance bands 2 work the arms in various positions to help mount a horse. I feel as if I'm well on my way toward my goal of riding before the end of the year!
What goal have you put off because it seems too insurmountable for you to conquer? Put it in front of you and break it down into little Parts like I have done. Why one part is my weight. My second part is my leg strength. The third part is my arm strength. Looking at it as three parts that becomes much more surmountable then if you say I want to ride my horse again.
Set your goals in front of you and use them as incentive for you 2 conquer your goals. If I can do it you can do it. Let's make a share your goal Club out of this post and keep track on each other weekly to see how we are doing with our goals. If we work together and support one another we can keep each other on track and our goals will be met before we know it! Yeehaw here I come horses, watch out!
Claiming victory!
How Habits Can Transform Your Life
