There’s a lot to be said for “accountability.” You tell someone about your target goal, even in confidence, and presto-chango! suddenly there’s someone out there who will know, and I mean beyond-a-doubt KNOW that you dropped the ball if you decide, for whatever reason, to stop short of completing your original plan.
Oh, I’m not saying that they’d rub in your shortcomings in your face or hold it against you in any way if you did not ultimately succeed, but once it’s out there, there’s just something inside us that doesn’t want to disappoint (or be embarrassed for quitting). And it turns out that’s a good thing.
I started following a healthy food and exercising plan two days after Christmas. For ease in calculations, I’m calling my start date “the first of the year.”
Along about the end of March (just before Mom died) I made a “public” statement on Facebook that I’d lost 40 pounds, with 50 more to go to my goal weight.
And then my goal went viral, so to speak. Numerous local women begged me to share with them what I was doing, even more told me they were rooting for me, and suddenly I became “responsible” for keeping on… and keeping on… Despite what life threw at me.
Sadly, it’s been one hell of a challenging year. Four deaths of people closest to me, surgeries and long hospital stays for another, family slugging it out in court… Oh, I’m not saying that I’ve fallen off the wagon by any means—far from it.
I’m just saying that having TOLD THE WORLD that I was working on my health and fitness has made me just stubborn enough to cling to that one thing in my life that I could, to some small extent, control…
So today is August 1… Seven months into my plan to regain a healthier weight. (Not a skinny weight, by any means, but one that I know makes me feel better and stronger.) And today I’m happy to say I’m exactly 80 pounds down from January 1, with 10 more to go.
Accountability is a powerful thing, and somehow we all ended up in this together. So thank you all for your support, and let my story inspire you to share your dreams, too!