Today’s guest post is courtesy of Jody from Fit at 52. Please hit up her blog and give her some love. She’s one of the sweetest bloggers I’ve gotten to know and I love, love, love her posts and know you will too. :)

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First, thanks to Bobbie for letting me guest post! She is one that never gave up & she is showing the results for that hard work! Thanks Bobbie!

So most of us reading these fitness, health & weight loss blogs obviously either have a weight issue right now, had a weight issue in the past, are still working to lose excess weight, just trying to get healthy or any combination of the above & more.  I was heavy as a kid and into high school before I lost my weight. Now, saying that, I still had “knowledge” issues into my 20’s and 30’s. I kept most of the weight off, I did not yo-yo excessively but my “knowledge” factor stunk!!!!

Now, how many of you put on your weight young like me BUT had all those friends that could eat anything they wanted & never put on a pound??? I can remember bitching about this & how I was the only one in my circle of friends that put on weight just by looking at food!!! I was active early on & in high school put that did not stop the weight. Of course I was eating too much & the wrong things but so were a lot of the friends!!!   For those friends that could eat anything, many of them had reality hit in the late 20’s to 30’s (some later) when they found out they could not eat like they used to & that combined with less activity turned into a lot of pounds on the body!   One thing good about my situation – I found out earlier in life about eating healthier foods, having to exercise and/or find activities to help keep the weight off & most importantly, I learned to listen to my body & understand what works best for me, when I needed minor & major changes to either or both my food & exercise program and how to manipulate both for the best end result for me.

I think many of us give up because it is just too hard and it takes too long to lose the weight (even though it took years to put it on). We just lose patience with the process and fall into that woe is me. Well, if you think it is hard now, wait till you start the change of life if you are a woman! If you are a man, you are still going to have a slowing metabolism. BEST LOSE THE WEIGHT EARLIER ON CAUSE IT GETS HARDER THE OLDER YOU GET!  When I hit the 47-48 time frame (it may have been 45 since I lost count of these crazy years), my body started to attack. What I did was not working anymore. What I ate was not working anymore. This is when I stepped up my workout routine. I already was working out pretty hard BUT I upped the intensity by adding plyometrics, high intensity interval training, intervals but more a version I made up for myself and more… AND I HAD TO RE-EVALUATE MY FOOD PROGRAM!

Honestly between that 47 year old to now going on 53 years old, I have changed up my exercise AND FOOD program multiple times & still do. I am still working thru the change of life & so is my body. So, yes, I went into that “this sucks” talk to myself since I was already doing everything right when this hit. I was eating healthy foods & not too excess, I was exercising, I was lifting weights. SO, yes, I was doing everything right & I still had to make changes!  DID I GIVE UP? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FOUGHT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not going to give in to this. Yes, I did & still work very hard at fighting the aging process but it is worth it!

So if you think woe is me now… just wait. Buck up & tell yourself you are worth the effort! Understand that it takes time, patience & consistency. It is easier to get the process started now than when it attacks you even more so later on. Giving up is not an option! Your life & health are the pay off. Change the thought process & tell yourself you are lucky to be able to do this for you & your body! Find a food & exercise program that you love. One size does not fit all here. This is a lifestyle & you need to find things that will work long term. This is not a race to the finish… Understand it takes time, learn along the way and DON’T GIVE UP!

I can tell you from experience that if you work at it, you can fight the aging process to the best possible for your age. No, you may not look like you did in your 20’s or 30’s but you can still look damn good for your age! YOU ARE WORTH THE EFFORT!

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