Thursday, February 4, 2010

Reaching the finish line - then what?


Towards the end of last year my focus became about a certain race I had entered and my life revolved around planning for this race - the 94.7 (no finish line for me) but the BIG race was over and I was left wondering 'now what?'  All direction, all focus disappeared - a HUGE black hole appeared before me and I sank into it.  Not a good place to be.  I think my body was pushing for some time-out and that is what it got. 

With the New Year came a fresh burst of ENERGY, a renewal of sorts - a need to continue with my journey.  I entered a few more races and completed my first Century race - 103 km's. 

BUT

I got to thinking this week - I feel like I'm setting a trap for myself.  What will happen when I reach goal weight?  Am I setting myself up for a 'now what' moment? 

I don't want it to define my life - this 'goal weight' achievement, if anything it should be a step/path on a journey to life of healthy living - not the be all and end all.  I don't want to find myself at goal weight and falling back into old habits.  Hopefully all my new healthy habits will stick cause let me tell you old habits have a sneaky way of creeping up on you and taking hold. 

With each 'finish line' comes a sense of achievement and I cannot wait for my next one.  With every kilo lost the cycling gets easier and one day soon I'll be flying up those hills instead of struggling up them.  I even manage to make 'granny' gear look hard.

Today my focus is seeing beyond that 'finish line' - keeping the passion and continuing the journey because the journey should not have an end but always a beginning......


3 comments:

antgirl said...

The reward is a better quality of life. Look for it and feel it. It's what keeps me in it. Maintaining two years and counting. :)

Sagan said...

I'm with you on the importance of seeing BEYOND the finish line... and I think, when it comes to losing weight and finding it easier to do things like bike, then the way to look at it is not so much "now what?" once you've achieved your goal weight, but "look what I can DO now!"

Hanlie said...

1. Well done on that 103 km race! That's awesome!

2. I hope the move went well. You have all my empathy... It took me two weeks to recover from our move.

3. I love the new blog design. It's really pretty.

4. This is something I think about a lot, since I have the tendency to build an upcoming event up in my mind and then come down hard once it's over. This is why I have been trying to make changes with an eye on sustainability. Can I eat like this for the rest of my life? Can I exercise like this for the rest of my life? What happens when I have kids? What happens if I start working again? What happens if I get angry, sad, busy or upset? It's not easy, but I think I'm getting there. In fact, I think I'll write about this on my blog some time soon.