Progress Comes In Spurts; Stay the Course

This is #6 of the “top 10 lessons that becoming an athlete have taught me about weight loss” that appeared in the “Building Sweat Equity” blog.

“Progress comes in spurts; stay the course.”

Along the road in both fitness and weight loss, things come up that make it easy to get sidetracked or discouraged. When that happens it’s important to keep in mind that progress doesn’t come systematically.

When I start a new sport there’s a learning curve to it. Both yoga and swimming were entirely new to me when I picked them up, but I worked at them diligently. Improvements came quickly in the beginning, but now that I’ve been doing each for a while progress is much slower. It can be frustrating that my gains are so small.

Similarly weight loss comes in spurts. You’ll be going along at a good clip, then progress slows or even stops. It can be maddening. You may be ready to throw in the towel, or go back to some of your old eating habits.

But remember, developments may not be reflected on the scale right away. Sometimes there are “behind-the-scenes” changes happening that you can’t see: improved heart health, lowered blood pressure, increased metabolism, and enhanced strength and endurance.

Keep your eyes on the long-term goal of good health, keep making all the good choices you know you need to make and the scale will catch up with you.

Sometimes gains come rapidly; sometimes they slow to a trickle. When that happens we must keep the end goal in mind and stay the course … because that’s where success is!

C’mon, we got this!