It was like a bolt from the blue.

I read something on my fitness pal, that was a list of things about fitness and weight loss and it just occurred to me one of those things rings very true. Up till now I've been working towards this 'goal' of losing weight and getting fitter, like it was some quest in a game and not a point in my life's journey. I've been sort of thinking once I reach a certain weight, everything will fall into place and life will be better.

Like once I've reached my goal weight, or rather the goal of a flat stomach, then I'll be done and can chalk it up to a job well done, till I realised, I'm never going to stop actually watching what I'm eating and pushing on with the exercise. It's weird that I've came to this conclusion this far into my journey, what actually surprises me more is that it never properly occurred to me before, merely hinting at the lifestyle change that needed to be made, I guess this realisation has been there in one form or another over the years, since, I've avoided using butter or margarine on anything and eating a healthier variety of bread.

I mentioned this to my wife and her friend, who were having a quiet drink and my wife's friend, who runs a weight watchers class, that she has seem so many people who get to their goal weight, then stop attending the classes, only to return having put on the weight that they lost, I've always known that going back to eating the same foods you ate before you decided to change, would result in the weight pilling back on but the epiphany of knowing with crystal clarity, that I would have to be careful what I ate for the rest of my life, was a bit of a shock.

Still, now that I've had this sudden realisation, I can move on and reach my goal, then carefully maintain my weight, allowing myself treats but ensuring that I exercise enough to compensate for the calories that I've eaten. This will be where the hard work really starts because as hard as it has been so far and it has been at times, that will become point 0 where I need to carefully balance my calorie intake and exercise output.

My guess is that, I'll enjoy looking and feeling good, that I'll automatically make the better choices, that I need and never again be the overweight bloke, who wasn't happy with the way he looked but didn't have the motivation to do anything about it.