7 months in

We're at the tail end of July. Seven months into the year.

I don't know about you, but over the course of 2013, I've had a lot......a lot.....of friends post on FB or Twitter or whatever social networking they are using that they are changing their lifestyle. They want to get healthy and/or lose weight. Most of them posted about it, I'm sure, to attempt some level of accountability. "Hey, if I post it in public then I have to stick to it!"

But now it's July and you probably aren't hearing a lot about those life changes anymore. Your friend who was gonna do the juice cleanse posted about her amazing burger and fries three days into it. And your friend who joined the gym has had "life happen"' and hasn't been in a month. Or maybe it's you.....you made a total commitment to walk 30 minutes every day.....but that kind of hasn't happens in about eleven....and twenty days. 

Of my friends who started some sort of new life journey, about half of them asked me for advice. Advice on what to eat or how to exercise or how to fit it all into being a mom. And honestly I feel like my advice is kind of pointless. Because anyone can say "Ok! I'm gonna eat clean!" but really...what's your plan past that? Where do you want to be? What do you want at the end of it? Where, exactly, is that end anyways?

I'm not judging. I was there once. I have a few wasted gym memberships under my belt. I have work out DVDs I have watched all of one time and I think I've bought five yoga mats that saw maybe two classes each before I thrifted them.

For me, the light bulb finally snapped on in my brain when I went through 2011 as a semi-regular runner.....and I went January to December with no real change in my body. And I thought "I just went a whole entire year with no change.....do I really want to look back at every year in that way?"

So it's July. Seven months into 2013.

What did you say you wanted to do for yourself this year? What progress have you made towards that goal? 

And more importantly.....how are you going to feel if you start 2014 at the same place you started 2013? 

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My suggestion for getting back on track? Give yourself 21 days. 21 days of no cheating, no quitting, no excuses. You can do anything for 3 weeks. And they say....it takes 3 weeks to make or break a habit. All you have to give is 3 weeks. It's not even a whole month. 3 weeks of yoga or therapy or running daily or not drinking or not eating junk food. Whatever it is for you......give yourself 3 weeks. 21 days. That's nothing. That's a blink of an eye.

Whatever it is you want to do, you can do anything for 3 weeks.

And then maybe on January 1, 2014....you look back and think "Damn.....look at what I did this past year!"

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Note:

This is NOT a persecution. I am so incredibly guilty this year. I have failed myself the past few months. This is a call to myself to get back on track, to get back to being happy with myself, to make myself proud in the way I know I'm capable of and deserve. I am not immune from falling off the wagon....not by any stretch. I do not want to waste this time. I do not want to get to the end of 2013 and look back and think "Man, I could have done so much more". I'm right there with you.