Taking my own advice!

A few years ago a friend of mine who had a significant amount of weight to lose came to me asking for advice on how to lose a large amount of weight. I had recently lost 20kg in about four months through extremely healthy eating and exercise and she was just looking for a bit of inspiration/motivation.

This conversation came back to me last night as I looked at myself in the mirror in some horror, noticing some of my problem areas are really becoming more of a problem than they have been for about four years. Yikes. I seriously was on the verge of a panic attack. Negative thoughts about how I was going to end up back where I started - overweight and miserable - and have to start all over again.

After taking a series of deep breaths I decided freaking out was not going to help matters AT ALL, and what I needed was to take steps to get back on track. Step one was to jump on the scale to see the damage. It's really NOT that bad, but the problem is all the weight is sitting on my stomach and thighs - my problem areas - and that's where I always look. It's about 3kg that I want/need to lose, nothing too drastic I guess but on my short frame it makes a big difference.

My second step was to think about the advice I gave my friend. Basically, it was not to think too much about losing X amount of weight, rather it was breaking it all down into days. Each day - when I was on my first mission - I would barely permit myself to think about where I would be in a month or at the end of the month, I only thought about getting through the day - eating healthily, eating clean, going for a run/to the gym etc. For me, this worked because I didn't freak out about how HARD the weeks and months might be, I just thought about each day.

I apply a similar approach to running. Right now, I don't think I could run a half-marathon. Or, if I could, I would struggle badly and suffer even more badly the next day. However, if I focus on doing my weekly track sessions, one long run a week (increasing by 10 percent each week) plus a tempo run, a cardio session, weights session (times two) each week, I can handle it much more easily and don't freak out. Further, I break the week down - Monday is (at the moment) a 5km tempo run with some biiiig hills, Tuesday is Pump, Wednesday is my track running session, Thursday is cardio plus Pump, Friday is my rest day, Saturday is my long run plus weights and Sunday is a cardio recovery session plus a swim. Plus I try to do a core workout every second morning - just for 15 minutes or so - plus stretching my ITBs and hamstrings every day.

This is what's manageable. I just need to calm down and turn things around.

So, there you go, I'm taking my own advice. Any other advice/suggestions greatly appreciated.