Why can't life come with do overs......

"I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

I wish I could start this whole thing over again...
Yeah, I wish somehow I didn't know now what I didn't know then"... Toby Keith

The last couple of days I have been doing a lot of thinking about things I wish I could have done differently in this weight loss/lifestyle changejourney. I want a "do over".

I have to share a side story before I get into what I would do differently...."do overs" is one of those few things from childhood that make me smile. I used to play summer softball and one of the coaches, Mr. Flansburg, used to allow us to have "do overs" when we flubbed something up or hadn't tried our hardest. He gave us another chance to do our best....so many times since then I wish life came with that option, and every time I have that kind of a moment I think of him!!!!!

Ok now my honesty, it will come to no surprise to anyone reading and especially those who know me, that the last 5 or so weeks has been trying for me. My vacation, the medical stuff, relationship stuff, work stuff and I know on the other side I will be better and stronger for all I am going through, but it is definitely wearing on me. And I had to stop myself last night when I realized I was questioning if the way I am doing this is the right path or not. Should I have gone with the surgery instead, should I still consider that now since I have 110 more pounds to lose. I really wonder if I have what it takes to stay with this level of effort for 2 years or so to get to the goal. If I had that "do over" I am just not sure at this point which path I would take, maybe some hybrid of the two paths. Some time with a trainer to build some habits and then the surgery to increase the pace of the weight loss and shorten the time involved, and then more time with the trainer post surgery to make sure it stuck. This path just seems really long right now.

Beyond the how would I do it, there are definitely some things I wish I had done differently, and this is the advice I wanted to share for those just starting out on a similar journey...

1) Take lots and lots of pictures of yourself, clothed and unclothed, before you start losing weight. As much as I HATE having my picture taken, I regret I don't have more things for comparison now.

2) Take lots and lots of measurements. Measure every inch of your body. When I started with the trainer they measured 3 spots. And the great irony is for all the weight I have lost those aren't the spots that have changed. I wish I had so many other points to document the change now.

3) Have redundancy in your plans. What are you going to do if you lose your job and can't afford to workout where you do, what are you going to do if your club goes out of business, what are you going to do if your trainer transfers or moves to another country. I never would have thought of any of these, and didn't, but have friends and readers on here who have gone through all of them and it has negatively impacted their goals.

4) Have a plan for how you are going to handle it when you get derailed or lose your focus. It happens to the best of us, and figuring it out when it goes on is a lot harder than knowing ahead of time what your "disaster plan" is.

5) Set rewards for yourself at key milestones. Having something you are working towards will help with long term focus. I used to think just the number on the scale dropping would be all the motivation I need. In the last weeks I have learned that you do become kind of numb to that after a while and losing a pound or three no longer holds the excitement it does in the beginning. This is something I am trying to figure out now for the future. I have thought about a piece of jewelry I could add to every 50 lbs or something of that nature, but it is still a work in progress. I wish I had done it at the beginning to get me through the last few weeks. I feel I am losing sight of the goal and the why.