Choose your hard! In the THM (Trim Healthy Mama) community, we often talk about this phrase. Some newbies comment that the plan is just too hard to understand. It’s too hard to meal plan or too hard to take time to grocery shop for healthy food. The truth is that it is hard at first BUT it gets easier. Feeling uncomfortable in your own skin never gets easier. It will always be hard. You can choose a path that you know will be hard at first but will ultimately get easier and will help you get closer to your goals OR you can choose a path that will be hard and will always be hard because you’re not doing anything to change it. So I encourage you to choose your hard now, knowing it will get easier and it will be worth it when you reach your goals!!
I thought about this a lot as I was on the 4th mile of my 10 k race a few weeks back. My stomach was not feeling the best and I wasn’t so sure I could finish strong. I had a passing thought that maybe I should just walk the rest of the way and be done. Who would care? Would it really matter? I decided that of course it would matter. I set my mind up to run this 10 k race, and although I didn’t train as much as I wanted to because we had a lot going on this summer, I was still prepared enough to do it and by golly, I was going to finish strong! I kept telling myself “I can do hard things!”. Once I got to mile 5 I knew I could do it. I was in the homestretch. I pushed through. I felt victorious as I crossed the finish line. I didn’t beat any records & it wasn’t my fastest time, but I finished knowing I pushed through the mental and physical hard. The pic I posted is one that I took after my 4 1/2 mile run at 10 at night. It was HARD. I was tired and it was hot, but I had committed to training and I wanted to do it badly enough that I made it a priority, EVEN at 10:00 at night.
Our weight loss journeys are the same. I notice with a lot of my clients that they begin the process in a “honeymoon phase” and they have a lot of success when they first start out with coaching which keeps them motivated and on plan. Then life happens and it suddenly becomes more of a struggle. It’s at that point that they have to decide if they want to slip back into old habits or if they want to continue with their new lifestyle and find ways to stay on plan during the busy seasons in their lives. They have to ask themselves “Do I want this badly enough?” Yes it will get harder at times because you will have very busy weeks, maintenance weeks or even weeks where you gain a little or go off plan. But, if you focus on choosing the hard that will eventually get easier and stay the course, you will ultimately get to your goal. It’s all about what you ultimately want. We prioritize what is most important to us. Make sure this health journey you’re on is always important because when we prioritize our health, the rest of our lives are more manageable and enjoyable.
What about you? Do you find THM to be hard? Why or why not? Have you found that it’s easier the longer you do it? What motivates you when it gets hard? What other things in your life have been hard that you have worked at? Did those things get easier? What motivated you to keep going when it got hard?
