This is a blog post that I originally posted on my SparkPeople page, but thought I would share on here as well:
When I was in high school, I wasn't what you would consider an "A" student. I passed *most* of my classes and did graduate. However, I was passionate about playing music. I would spend hours in the practice room at school (sometimes skipping other classes to do it) and participated in numerous honor bands and was even a member of the National Honor Band my senior year. It was my audition that got me accepted to college (not really my grades) and I spent two years at a University..... failing pretty much all of my classes except for Marching Band. Needless to say, I did not finish my studies at that university.
Then, about 7 years ago I decided to go back to school to get a degree. I wasn't happy with my job at the time, and wanted to work more in the I.T. world. It took 5 years but I graduated in 2012 with my Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. What I failed to do about twenty years prior I succeeded... and then some! I graduated Summa Cum Laude! Then, just to put the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae I decided to go for my MBA in marketing. I accomplished that in August of this year..... getting straight A's!
After pondering how I did it, I began to realize that I was not looking at the whole picture when I was in school. I wasn't focused on graduating. I took it class by class, session by session, and focused just on the class I was taking at that time. School was the first priority in my life (dare I say sometimes more than my job). My family understood (I have no kids so basically my husband understood). I was DETERMINED to finish and to finish with the best possible results. It was challenging but I like challenges, especially when you accomplish something at the end.
So, now that school is done, I'm putting that same determination toward my weight loss. This has been an ongoing challenge for me for as long as I can remember, but there was always something else that was (in my mind) a bigger priority. Whether it was my job (which, at times, kicked my butt with the amount of hours) or family or school, even though I tried to lose weight during that time, I wasn't successful. Now I have the time and dedication to make my weight loss THE priority, and will take it day by day, week by week! Each time I go to the gym, I relate that to "study time". My weigh ins are my "exams" and my graduation day will be the day that I hit my goal. I know that it's going to take awhile to accomplish my overall goal, but my little goals that I make along the way will be my overall grades (or GPA if you like), and I want to make sure that I graduate with straight A's! Hmmm... should I call it "Nikki's University of Weight Loss Journeys"?