Community Corner

Week One: The So-Called Finish Line

Yet another starting line for my weight loss goals.

Goals.

If you work hard, you can achieve them. Victory is yours!

You put in the time, the energy, the work, and thereafter you find yourself on the finish line. Goal: achieved.

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My goals and I, we’ve had success. Goal: earn a college degree. Yep, Rutgers Class of 2007. Victory! Goal over.

Some goals, however, I seem to achieve over and over again. Mainly, the goal of losing weight.

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I tell myself: “self, we are going to drop some of this weight.” And what do you know, after putting in the time, the energy, the work, I find myself on the finish line. Weight loss goal: achieved.

The problem is, obviously, that these goals are quite different in what happens after you’ve achieved it.

In the case of the college degree, you can stop going to class once you’ve earned it.  Reaching a fitness goal is just not the same thing. You have to keep going to those fitness classes, it turns out.

This was a lesson not obvious to me.  I kept treating my fitness goals as though they were a finish line. It has taken me some time to realize that unlike the distinction of graduating college, being healthy doesn’t end once you achieve it. You have to keep doing those healthy things. If you don’t, well guess what, you are unhealthy again.

And so, after I lost all this weight, I began to eat the same portions I used to, and sat around like I did previous, assuming that my weight loss mission was accomplished, having arrived at the finish line. And with the passing time and a step on the scale I would eventually become horrified to find that I was in fact back at the starting line again.

That’s where I’m at as I decide to join some of my fellow Patch editors in the Patch Takes it Off series. I’m back at the starting line, trying to lose the same weight I’ve lost multiple times already.

This time, at least, I realize that once I reach the finish line, I have to keep going.

Tune in each Monday as I opine about this journey and detail what happens.

And here's what my colleagues and are up to with Patch Takes If Off. If you'd like to detail your own journey, consider signing up for our blog section and join us.


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