The Importance of Support

So here's the thing.  The beginning of any new journey starts with you.  No matter what kind of journey you are planning, weight loss, getting fit, eating healthier, whatever.  You have to decide what that journey is going to be.  You have to decide where you are trying to go.  And ultimately, YOU have to decide that you are going to take the first step.  But once you make that decision, you don't have to travel it alone.  Unfortunately though, so many people just don't seek out the support tools that are available.  They get excited to start their journey, they plan it all out, and then they go it alone.

           I can do it all myself!

The beginning is great!  When you have all that excited energy, it is easy to keep going.  And you can continue to feed off of it for a while.  But the longer you go, the more challenging the journey can become.  And there's more you have to handle.

So after a little time, what happens?  You start to stumble, you get a little lost and you end up feeling like you can't do it anymore.  You end up frustrated, and eventually feel like it is too much to handle alone.  And many people who get to this point just give up and quit.

What happened?  Well, when you try to take on too much by yourself, sometimes it just ends up being too much.  But what you forgot is that you don't have to do it all alone.  You have lots of tools you can use to help you get through it.

You can join a group, work with your friends, use message boards to ask questions and get answers, and work with a coach.  Even professional athletes have coaches, trainers, health professionals, family and fans helping them on a daily basis.  So why do you think you have to do this alone?

Let me put it another way.  If you've been following my blog, you know that I had a rough patch last week.  I almost had my old friends Ben & Jerry over for a little pity party.  This has become an ingrained habit for me when I am feeling low.  But I didn't really want to ruin everything that I've been working toward, so I used the tools that were available to me.  I talked through some of it with a great friend, talked it through some more with my husband, and later in the day when I was at my worst, I sent a mesage to my coach.  Within 5 minutes I got a message back.  She spent the next hour with me working through what was going on in my head, and what the results of my choices would/could be. And did I mention that she was trying to make dinner for her own family at the time?  And she has a toddler? 

THIS is why she is an amazing coach, and has become a very good friend too.  But you see, if I hadn't used all the tools available to me, I might have eaten that ice cream.  And yeah, I might have gotten over it the next day because nobody's perfect.  And I may have still done my workout.  And I might have had to work off all the sugar that I jammed into my system, and the weight that came with it for the next week.  This was not what I wanted, and I was very grateful to have had so many ways to work through what was happening and so many support tools at my disposal.

So you see, this journey is something that you do have to start alone, but it doesn't have to be lonely.  I hope that one day I will be able to be as amazing of a coach to my customers and friends as mine is to me.  But that is part of my journey right now too.  And guess what?  I'm not walking that one alone either...

You take the first step, and I'll help you with the rest.