Now, let’s go to Blair. She took a different approach to the race. She knows herself better than anyone and knows she won’t be able to run the entire time like Addison didn’t. She runs the first 3 miles and decides to walk the next mile to catch her breath. She continues to do this throughout the whole race. Her plan is to stop at each water station, stretch her muscles and then continue on. Sometimes she finds herself walking more than she is running. It’s going to take her much longer to get to the endn than Addison, who flew by her earlier but she’s ok with that. She’s not going for time; she’s just focused on finishing. Blair continues to complete the race her way and finally gets to the finish line. She crosses it, completely satisfied with what she has accomplished. She’s not winning any awards but her goal was met and she is happy.

           Finally, we go to Corey. As the race begins, she is overtaken by fear and self-doubt. The thought of so many miles seems so daunting and she’s afraid to fail. She doesn’t want to get a few miles in and have to stop, even for a second. It’s either all or nothing for her. So she doesn’t even start. She stays at the starting line, pacing back and forth. She watches others run the race. She sees Blair, running and walking, even stopping and shakes her head – she would never run the race like that. She wants to run the race like Addison. She will only start if she knows she can do it without stopping. So she waits there. She wonders what it would feel like to cross the finish line, to get that medal, to feel that sense of completion. But she never actually takes off. She never finishes.

So why am I telling you this story? It’s an analogy of course. But it’s not for exercise. For the most part, working out is the easy part. Yes, it’s hard but it’s only a few hours a week and then it’s done. It’s the nutrition part that’s tough. That’s every day, all day. And it’s what usually makes or break someone’s results.

Here’s the thing – we all want to be like Addison. We want to take off running with our diets and not look back. Sure we know we are going to hit bumps in the road, but we want to just jump right over them and keep going. We want to get there as fast as possible and not have much trouble at all. That’s certainly possible but it’s not very probable as most of us are not like Addison. We can’t let everything fall away and just run full steam ahead when it goes to our diet. Most of us are like Blair when it comes to diet. It takes time. We may need/want/have to take breaks. Some weeks we will do fantastic and others will be a struggle. But the important thing to remember is Blair met her goal. It just took a lot longer than Addison. And THAT’s where so many people get tripped up. We want it to be perfect or not at all. And sometimes, we slowly start becoming like Corey. We sit and wait for a time in our lives when transitioning our diets will be easy. We wait until we don’t have vacations, business trips, people visiting, etc. We find ourselves saying, “Oh I can’t start that now…I have that thing coming up…I’ll start the Monday after.” 

But I promise you, the time will NEVER come. There is never a perfect time to start making changes. There will ALWAYS be obstacles. There will ALWAYS be times where it will be so hard that you have to stop or take it slow. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start. It does mean that you should be realistic about the time it may take. We can’t all be Addison. AND THAT’S OK!

Just step off the starting line and continue to take steps towards the finish line. Sometimes you will run and sometimes you will walk. The key is to go at your own pace and keep your eye on the finish line. 

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