52 DAYS OF FITNESS CHALLENGE: DAY 44

5 Lessons I’ve Learned From This Colossal Failure of a Fitness Challenge

Lesson Number One: I just suck at trying to lose weight

Hello, everyone. Well, here we are at Day 44 of my 52 Days Of Fitness Challenge… and I think it’s time to confess that I have failed.

I failed to lose a significant amount of weight. I failed to write about it regularly. I failed to change my eating habits. And I failed to exercise as much as I planned.

Guess what?

That is all okay.

Failure is okay! I’m slowly learning that in life.

And I’m slowly (so very slowly) un-learning that I don’t have to be a blazing success at everything I try.

Because you know what happens when you think that way? You don’t try much of anything.

I tried. (Admittedly, there were times when I could have tried harder.) But I did try. And I have, to date, lost… one pound.

One tiny little pound.

But! I didn’t gain any weight. So there’s that.

Also, I have learned from my efforts, my mistakes, my failures, and my small successes.

Here are five of my takeaways from this whole messy experiment:

1) I Suck At Losing Weight Because I’m Just Too Fond Of Eating

It’s a sad fact of biology that at my age, I will never lose a significant amount of weight without making major changes to my diet.

Guess what I’ve learned over the past few weeks?

I don’t want to make major changes to my diet.

Actually, I knew that going in. I even said it in my first post about this challenge.

Then I realized that was going to work, and then I tried to eat less, and I just… couldn’t.

And guess what else? It’s okay!!!

I’m okay with carrying this extra 10 pounds. I mean, I must be because if I weren’t, wouldn’t I try harder to lose it?

Hmm. Food for thought. (Yep, I just said that).

2) I Really Like Resistance Training

At the outset of this challenge, I believed that doing massive amounts of cardio for significant calorie burn would be the key.

So I tried that for a while, and… it didn’t work.

Then I started seeing articles about the importance of weight/resistance training, not just for weight loss, but also for increased bone density (and strength, obviously), and how important this becomes as we age.

Historically, I have found weight lifting to be incredibly boring.

Now I find it less boring (thanks to a good set of ear buds and some great celebrity memoirs on audio), and I also find it very rewarding.

After just a few weeks of doing bicep curls and tricep presses with dumbbells that are just a little too heavy, I’ve noticed better tone in my upper body.

I will continue this long after this challenge is officially over.

3) Trying Is Better Than Not Trying

I tried to lose 10 pounds in 52 days, and I failed.

But where would I be if I hadn’t tried at all?

As I say, I have lost a tiny little smidgen of weight. If I hadn’t tried at all, would I have gained?

And I have discovered the joy of weight lifting, and I’m building muscle.

I also wrote quite a bit about all of this.

These are all victories, as far as I’m concerned, and they wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t tried at all.

4) Lifelong Fitness Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint

I am committed to lifelong vitality and mobility. I’m not going to stop once this 52 days is officially over.

If anything, I may increase my efforts once the time pressure is lifted.

I will always care about my body — not necessarily its size (within reason), but its ability to do the things I need it to do, like go for long walks with the dog, and run with my friends on Saturday mornings, and hike with the kids, and carry me around as I explore exciting new places.

I will always do my best to guard these abilities. For as long as I can, I will exercise, stretch, move, and eat reasonably well on the regular.

But I will also never not allow myself the occasional bowl of ice cream.

5) There Are A Million More Important Things Than How Much I Weigh

Here are just a few of them:

• The health and happiness of everyone I love (including myself)
• The exciting big trip I am about to take with the three people I love the most
• My writing
• Being kind, open-minded, and committed to continual growth and learning
• The fact that while I sit around complaining about a few extra pounds on my mostly healthy body, so many people, even in my own community, don’t have enough to eat. (I’ll take a moment to encourage y’all to support your local food bank whenever you can).

Actually, I already knew that these things are more important than how much I weigh.

But a reminder never hurts.

Friends, I think I’m officially done with this challenge and likely won’t be writing about it again unless I get insanely inspired to do so. Or unless… I magically I lose 10 pounds between now and next Tuesday. (Let’s not hope for that because that couldn’t possibly be a good thing).

But I’m not done with the lessons I’ve learned. I hope you found some value in them too.

And, as ever, thanks so much to everyone who has followed along. Your support and encouragement mean the world to me.

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