It does not matter how many times you fall...

...what is important is that you get up and keep on going. Boy, do I know about that! I have been struggling with my weight for several years now (I'm using "several" to be generous). And I have done many things to deal with it, but I have not been consistent, despite having seen results. Take for example 2011, the year Andrew and I got married. I was eating right, I was running several days a week, I was getting physical therapy twice a week. And by the time we got married, I had lost a considerable amount of weight. Not exactly what I had wanted, but hey! I was able to comfortably get on size 10 pants without any problems. But, as usual, something got in the way and I got distracted.

Andrew and I on our wedding day 7/17/11

Then I tried again. Last year we added yoga to our exercise routine. It was great, because in addition to Andrew, our daughter Amanda joined us and yoga became a weekly routine for the three of us. Loved it! I felt great, energized and super flexible. We also kept on running, and doing strength training regularly. This time around my biggest accomplishment was keeping my diabetes under control. I have been a Type 2 diabetic for around 10 years and I have managed to control it through diet and exercise. So, despite not having lost weight, I felt great about this, and about keeping my A1C reading at 6%. Pretty good for not using medications! But once again, life got in the way and it was easier to put exercise to the side and focus on the 101 other things that needed to be done (in retrospect, I am pretty sure they did not need to be done, but it really, really felt like that at that time!).

Weight training - getting stronger!

And yet, I did not give up. I started all over again. I have been more consistent this time around, and Andrew has been helping me quite a bit. He continues to guide me through strength training, despite my repeated threats to fire him when he makes me do exercises that I don't like. He ignores me and continues with the torture...and at the end I appreciate it. Yesterday I got a bit more excited about this whole new routine. I was watching the Live Big with Ali Vincent show and she was talking about healthy eating and breaking out your calorie allotment throughout the day. It reminded me of when I went to my diabetic education training a couple of years back. That helped me a lot; it reminded me that  healthy eating does not equate starving. On the contrary! Making healthy food choices will help you keep satisfied throughout the day while helping you keep your weight on check (or losing weight in my case, but in a good way). 

40 minutes on the Elliptical - those last 5 minutes last forever!

So, there it is. I have fallen many times, but I have gotten up each single time, and I keep getting stronger. And I don't see this as failures. To me, failure is staying in the same situation and not doing anything about it; you have just been defeated. But not me, no sir. I am not defeated. There is a lot of fire inside me and it will keep me fighting. I am looking forward to when being healthy becomes my lifestyle so that I don't fall again, or at least not as often. But if I happen to fall again, rest assured that I will get back up and start all over. There's no other way about it.