Staying encouraged

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." -John Bingham

I love this quote, as do many people and I believe it's key operative word is COURAGE. Courage is what beginning a weight loss, or any other healing journey, is about for me. The key challenge is to be and stay encouraged at the beginning. Case in point: at present I am faced with the daunting goal of losing 125 lb., which I know first hand will require complete dedication on my part for at least a year and a half so... lots of focus, sacrifice, discipline, consistency and belief are in store for me. How does one stay encouraged when catching a single glimpse of yourself provides you with visual confirmation of just how far gone you are and just how much work lies ahead? How do you stay mentally strong, emotionally steady, spiritually sound over a long enough period of time to start making a dent into that huge a goal? That's been the true challenge for me, especially at the onset of my weight loss journeys. However, life is so well ordained that this time around, I can benefit from my recent experience of losing my mother, as well as previous successful weight loss journey which give me valuable insight into what is required. Because I've been down and somehow managed to talk and act myself out of despair; because I've been able to come out of that and somewhat recover, I know that one has to be able to pace herself and solely focus on one day and one moment at a time. The goal is to wake up everyday and decide to keep healing for that day and then pose one small healing action after the other, take one good decision after the other, 'til one reaches a critical mass of time after which other mundane and external things can take over as motivator, like better physical shape, fitting into better looking clothes, stamina and just feeling better about yourself, your life and the space you occupy in this world. I am glad I have been here before, and gone through various degrees of pain and recovery because I now know without the shadow of a doubt that I can feel bad and recover and that it starts with a decision to keep encouraging myself, one moment, one hour, one day at a time.
K.