E.L.M.M.

Well, the year has started and we are already 3/4 of the way through January. It has been so, so cold these last couple of weeks and all we want to do is to keep warm and motivation seems to be hiding under the blankets :)
But we need to get our heads around what we need to do, to at least consider what our challenges are for the year ahead.
Last year I lost seven and a half stone, but trying now to think about how I did it seems so hard.
People say to me that it must have been so hard, and there were times it was, but the mind has a great way of forgetting such things.
I know my focus was on getting fitter so I could keep up with my grandson, and now with a second grandchild well on the way, I must take a good look at myself and decide just what I need to do now.
I am happy with the weight I am at the moment, but I do not want to slip back into bad habits and start putting weight back on again.
For motivation I have been watching and reading a lot these last three weeks about weight issues, losing weight, and about people who, for whatever reason, prefer to be big.
The title of this weeks blog entry is "E.L.M.M." which stands for "Eat Less, Move More". Now when I watched the recent documentary in which Katie Hopkins intentionally put on weight to prove that it was easy to lose it again, she suggested that all you had to do was eat less food and move around more.
It all seems so simple, but if it was, then we could all do it, couldn't we?
But, of course, it's not. It's like all the other things we would love to do, but stress, emotions, personal problems, life, time all get in the way. Nothing is ever that simple and every one of us is different and every one of us has to deal with things in our own way.
I watched a documentary about fat fetishes which I did find disturbing. Not for the reasons you might think, but I could not get my head around the idea that a lot of these really large ladies were actually happy the way they were. It seems to me that they were either making the best of a bad situation, or were being controlled by someone else who was benefiting from the things they were doing for money.
If they were really happy in the situation they have found themselves in, then that is fine. I am all for body confidence and self-acceptance, but it does leave you thinking about what you want for yourself.
For myself, I think what has helped me up to now and hopefully into this next year is really knowing what it is that I want and learning about myself and the best way to achieve it.
As the saying goes, "The only person that is responsible for what you can achieve is you."
If you want to accomplish something, whatever it is, give yourself time to think about how you can do it and learn new ways to help to reach your goal. You will thank yourself a few months down the line if you manage to do it and you will feel so good about it.
And if you don't, well at least you tried, but be satisfied you really did try.
For me, my plan is to look into monitoring my weight loss and possibly losing another stone before the Summer.
It so cold at the moment and we are all wrapped up in so many clothes, but that Summer, and body exposure, is just around the corner, so action plan here I come!