Progress Evaluation Time!

Okay guys we are into Week 7 of this challenge and I think we have enough weeks in to give us a good look at our performance so far. Many of you need not pay attention to any of this because you're kickin' ass and takin' names! WoooHoooo! I'm so proud of you guys!!!

Some of us, however, need to re-focus and evaluate our progress and open our eyes. Even if you've had things come up to wrinkle your plan now and then, I think that 7 weeks is enough time to have a good look at the stats and regardless of what has come up here and there, you should be able to see if you are truly giving it your best effort.

Remember, this is a tough love challenge and we all signed up for that very thing. So if you want to snarl at me for saying so, remember it is what you signed up for, right?! Preachy? Maybe, but no one else is stepping up to do the dirty work are they? You should have no reason to be upset at me for being honest. If you are upset by this post, then maybe you are not performing up to what you wanted and don't quite want to see the real reason. That's up to you.

If for some reason your progress so far is not where you had imagined it would be at this point, can you honestly blame it on A or B specifically? That's 7 whole weeks of time to put into this challenge and to lose some weight, right?! What I mean is, that sure there are some things that come up in our lives that make it more difficult in some circumstances than others to stick to your weight loss plan, but it is not likely (not saying not possible, just not likely) that it could influence 7 whole weeks of effort. Are you constantly rhyming off one excuse after another as to why you're not doing as well as you wanted to be?

If you haven't done as well as you originally have planned so far, what I'm saying is that you have to be accountable for what is in your control and what is not. That is entirely up to you what your standard is when deciding what is in your control and what is not. It's all relative to each person. You be the judge of what you want to believe is or isn't in your control.

Me? I certainly do not want to be a hypocrite because I had my share of poor results too. Sure I have my reasons excuses for why, but that doesn't mean that it is acceptable to me in my heart. It is not acceptable to me because I do not believe it should be acceptable for you guys. I have been honest with myself about it and that's what I'm asking of you now.

Vacation? Illness? Work parties? Birthdays? Thanksgiving? Halloween? An impossible "in-law" staying at your house for 3 weeks perhaps? There's a million of them isn't there? It is what it is. It's our job as ass kickers to not accept those kinds of things from stopping us and hindering weeks of progress. We must be armed with a Plan B to get us through those tough times.

It's completely up to you.

In addition to that, have you been doing your job and obligation to your fellow challengers to call them out on excuses when you hear them? You owe it to each other to be the bad guy sometimes and not to pat each other on the back when we haven't performed the way we wanted to perform. We need to depend on each other to pipe up and say so. That creates accountability in an environment that we have become too comfortable.

We ALL want to enter 2009 with a smile on our faces because we have already accomplished some major headway on what otherwise would have been a New Year's Resolution, would it not? I know that it is going through some of your heads that "in the new year" you'll definitely give it your all. Am I right? Did you say that in January 2008? I did.

What I'm saying is, what if this was your moment to go back in time before the New Year and give it the gusto and storm into January with some major accomplishment under you belt, even a few new notches made from your belt getting smaller and smaller? No one feels great about resolving in January to lose weight. No one. Sure you might feel that newly polished sense of motivation for a day or two, or a week or two, but just imagine how great you will feel at your holiday parties coming up slimmer than you are now!

Just sayin'!