I’ve been thinking  a lot about what makes it possible to keep going for some and makes it near impossible for others. When I get on the road or tracks to run, I bring to mind some of the studies I’ve read in recent times which have shown that less than 10% of people who successfully lose weight sustain the weight loss gains made up to a year after. There are days when I wake up and do not feel like exercising, but I know I don’t have much of a choice.  In fact, last Saturday, I decided to run on the tracks at the National stadium and set a target to run 10 laps which translates to 4km. By the second lap, I wanted to stop. Not because I was tired or out of breath, but because somewhere in my head, it felt like punishment. My body doesn’t recognize the initial push to run as fun! But I ran anyway and kept running. To keep me going, I suddenly imagined myself representing Nigeria, my country, at the Rio Olympics this summer and imagined my fellow Nigerians watching me do the 5,000 metre race, so I psyched myself to keep going so I don’t let ‘them’ (my imaginary audience) down. And I did, I  completed the race, I won gold for Nigeria. How I wish! All these athletes going for the Olympics are not doing a small thing! It takes a lot of work.

When friends and people who used to know me see me now, I get all sorts of comments, mostly positive, sometimes negative but I quickly dismiss those. I’ve done this for me and I’m totally happy about the progress made. The one question that remains constant is “How did you do it?” Or “What did you do?” Amidst all the wonderment that they express, there’s always an underlying sense of awe that I perceive from their reactions. Almost as if the amount of work required to achieve such a feat is extraordinary.  Maybe it is, maybe it is not! I don’t know. What I do know is that it is doable. As I’ve reiterated a number of times, it has not been easy, it is not not painless, but it can be done. It is possible.

I recently came across a quote attributed to Steve Jobs and it says “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance…. Unless you have a lot
of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up. So you’ve got to have an idea, or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about; otherwise, you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it through.” This quote has stuck with me since the first time I  read it. I guess that’s the extraordinary that sets apart those who make it from those who don’t make it, and this applies to all aspects of life including embarking on a weight loss journey. I thought it necessary to remind people as they work towards meeting their weight targets – it’s  not going to be easy, you won’t always feel like not eating or feel like working out. There’ll be times you’ll wonder if you can actually make it or if all your efforts are futile. There’ll be times when you see others doing things with reckless abandon such as over-eating and you’ll envy them because you know they’ll not add on a single gram to their weight. There’ll be days you just want to lie in bed and take some ice-cream without the guilt of reversing all the weight loss achieved.  It’s OK! You can relax cos it’s an unending journey and you have to persevere. What you do today adds up to the impact you’ll feel tomorrow so you may not feel like continuing, but you should anyway. If today, your energy level is low, that’s fine. Run tomorrow, but keep at it. Even when nobody applauds, no one is watching, no one cares, you’ll still keep at it anyway. You need to persevere and the ability to persevere is all in the mind!

Short post today; typing this from my phone in between meetings. Lol! I finally indulged in my Coldstone ice cream as planned last week. Oh what a feeling!