It’s Your Call
Today is already shot, so I’ll start clean tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is my grandmother’s 80th birthday party, so I’ll start the next day. Actually, I’ll start on Monday. Well next week is the start of a new month, so I’ll start on the 1st of the month. Forget it, the holidays are coming, so I’ll just start in the New Year.
There will always be a “good” reason to delay the start of working toward a very big and seemingly insurmountable goal, like weight loss. As the excuses grow stronger, the goal becomes further and further away. Even knowing and understanding why this goal is important can still lead to stalling the start of the process.
“Things got out of control. My wife and I had some events in our own life, and it showed that there was a need. Time to make a change — A big change for the betterment of everything. Not just ‘oh, we need to go to the gym.’ But ‘how do we do this every day to be healthy?’ And not ‘we need to diet,’ but how to just eat better and change those bad habits — it’s everything and we needed to make that cognizant change.”
Sound familiar? Josh (an RT+ client) describes how he finally started working toward his weight loss goal. He further explains how being in shape has never been a priority in life, and on top of that, working the night shift really makes exercising and eating right very challenging.
In 2020 Josh finally took the first step toward making a change for himself. The step that he designates as the hardest part of the process. One small task that began a now year-long program that has resulted in a nearly 80-pound weight loss for Josh.
The hardest step -- that first phone call. The phone call to Matt to inquire about the services at RT+. Josh admits, “I wasn’t the big athletic person growing up. I never had a focus on learning the appropriate way to work out. So I don’t even really know how it starts. It’s like, ‘this is a gym.’ Fantastic! But what do you do with all the stuff? Learning the appropriate ways to use things and just to understand your body better. Fuel your body and make everything function better in life. It makes a world of difference.”
“I’m not broken, but I’m out of shape. I don’t know what to do. Can you help me here? — So that phone call, that first contact, is kind of difficult.” And just like that, the phone call was made. It was intimidating and scary. But it was done. “It was almost like that relief — so now it’s out there. Now there’s this time and a date. I talked with (Matt) and we went over what he had to offer, and what the business is, and how he felt that he could best help. And then we made a time and a date to get together and talk some more in person.”
Having the date on the calendar for the first session was exactly what Josh needed. He finally felt like he was over the “psychological hump,” and he was moving forward. More forward movement than he’s ever made toward this goal — and all he did was pick up the phone and make the call.
Josh isn’t alone. Weight loss is a daunting task. Especially if you don’t even know where to start or you are feeling hopeless -- like the weight loss is too much to overcome. Maybe YOU have never struggled with your weight, but your mom or your sister or your best friend has spent their entire life struggling with it. Encourage them to make the call. It’s one small step in a very important direction to self-care.
Josh’s advice: Admit there’s a problem. Ask questions. Give it your all. Don’t hold back. It’s your call, so make it.