Accept But Don’t Settle

For the past couple of months, I’ve been trying to lose pounds. I have been exercising a lot but I haven’t been eating that well. The long and short of it (or should I say the heavy and light of it), is that even though my weight has gone up or down a pound over this time, I still weigh the same that I did in January. This is discouraging to me. I keep telling myself that I need to have better will power when eating but I have increased my exercise to kind of balance out my bad eating.

Last week I listened to a podcast from The Trim Healthy Mamas and they actually made a lot of sense to me. I have increased my exercise and I do feel better. My clothes are feeling loser too so I need to stop making myself feel guilty all the time. This stress and guilt is fighting anything I might be doing to lose weight.

They said if you hate the workout and are stressing about it, you are defeating the purpose. So, I’ve decided to accept that I might not lose weight but I am going to tone up and feel better because it makes me feel good.

They also said to accept who you are. Let’s face it, I will probably never have the body that I did at 25 years old no matter how hard I work out. Who am I kidding! So, my goal is going to be healthy and fit instead of working towards an unrealistic goal. I think if I work on healthy and fit, I may lose a few pounds in the process but I won’t focus on that.

I like walking on the treadmill every morning because I feel like it gives me energy. But I want to focus on doing this at least 5 days a week so if I miss 2 days, I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I have also started doing this 5 min. walking workout routine I found on YouTube by Leslie Sansone. I do this routine several times throughout the day and I really believe it is helping me tone up.

All of this is to say, I need to accept the body that I have and work to get it in the best shape possible. I will not settle for less than my best whatever I do. By coming up with excuses and false rationales, I am settling for less that what I can actually be.

Like all things in life, there has to be balance. I need to know what are false rationales and what are realistic goals.

The same thing applies to my students and my classroom. If my students have a disability, I need to help them accept that they have one. But that doesn’t mean they should settle for less than the best that they can be. They need to try different things and attempt harder things or they never will learn what their real capabilities actually are. They can’t live in a bubble and protect themselves from failure or they aren’t truly living. To me, that is play acting. Through failures, all people learn things about themselves and their abilities. But only trying something once and failing is not true learning. That is giving up.

What things have you tried and learned to accept without settiling? Please share.