Cross Your Road One Bite at a Time

Over the last few years I have heard several people say something like, “I really need to lose weight, but I am just not mentally ready yet.”  As I have said before, you do need to be ready to lose weight, but you don’t need the perfect frame of mind to get started.  What you do need is motivation and the willingness to commit to at least a single positive change in your life.  Small changes can be very powerful and lead to impressive long term results.

One day last week my eleven year old daughter says, “Dad, do you know how to eat an elephant?”  I said, “No.”  With a big grin on her face she says, “One bite at a time.”  We chuckled.  Later that day I began thinking that the punch line to that joke really is the secret to success in many things including weight loss.

When it comes to weight loss and fitness, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.  People often think that in order to be successful you need to change almost everything in your life.  Not true.  Whether you are looking to start your weight loss journey or you are trying seeking to rediscover your commitment, try to make changes one simple step at a time.

A friend of mine recently lost a noticeable amount of weight over the last few months.  Recently I asked him about it.  He said, “I am power walking – that’s it.”  After congratulating him he went on to tell me how surprisingly easy it has been.  He committed to one lifestyle change.  The results have been impressive.

Whether you are looking to start your weight loss journey or you trying to find a way to continue what you already started, the same advice applies – start by committing to a single change.  Over the last couple weeks I have finally started to run regularly again.  But while I have managed to run regularly, I have struggled to increase my distance each week as I want to do.

I usually run on a nice bike path near my home; it is over 50 miles long (one way).  Since I returned to running, I have initially kept my daily mileage at three miles.  But after a couple of weeks, it was time to increase my miles a bit.  There is a road that crosses the bike path at the 1.5 mile mark.  Lately, I have turned around when I reach that road.  But last week, I really needed to stretch my runs out for another mile or so – I needed to cross that road, but try as I might I kept turning around.

But one day this week, during my run, I remembered my daughter’s joke about the elephant.  I realized, success in this case doesn’t take that much effort, just cross that road for a quarter mile and turn around.  And that is exactly what I did.  I finally crossed that road and expanded my runs one bite at a time.

Wherever you are on your journey, remember to overcome your obstacle little by little.  Cross whatever roads you need to cross one bite at time.