6-Week Update

I have now completed 6 weeks of regular exercise and healthy eating. Hooray for me! I have been seeing some good things happening. The weight is coming off; I'm out of the habit of late-night binges or treats; I'm no longer craving many of the treats I used to want daily; and I drove by a restaurant the other day that I used to stop at several times a week and realized that it has been a really long time since I've been there. My habits are changing for the better. 

But despite the fact that I'm seeing progress--or perhaps because of it--I have been feeling less motivated lately to make good choices as far as lifestyle is concerned. I've been going to bed late, only doing partial workouts some days, and not being quite as careful about what I eat. I have thankfully established some pretty good patterns by now that are keeping me from straying too far from the path, so the end result is that I'm still working out, but I'm so exhausted that I feel like a zombie most of the time; I have no energy because I'm so tired; and I'm not happy. It's really hard for me to feel joy when all I'm trying to do is get through the day so I can finally go to bed.

This type of thing always happens to me when I start into a new workout plan, but usually it hits sooner. This time I feel like I'm handling things a little better because I have actually been able to see some progress and because the exercising and eating better have become habits. I know that won't work for long, though, if I don't get back to a place of enjoying what I am doing. Here is another one of those times when I need to address the emotional side of things. Why am I losing motivation? What about being healthy feels unsafe or scary? If I want to reach my optimal level of health, I cannot ignore these questions. I must address them as I go so that when I finally get to a point of great physical health, I will be able to easily maintain it because the rest of me will be healthy as well.