Week 26, Month 6

June has been a month of milestones for me and it has lifted my spirits considerably.

I passed the halfway mark with 50,000 swings which really made me see that I can keep pushing through difficulties by keeping to a few simple actions and sticking to a plan. When the plan goes off course I was able to adjust and get back on course in reasonable time.

During the month I have dealt with injury in a more thoughtful and, dare I say it, mature way than I’ve dealt with injury in the past. Having a longer term goal with a fixed end date meant that I can’t just ignore it and risk it totally derailing the challenge. The practice of having a long term objective and slowly making my way towards it is creeping into my everyday life as a result. I can sense my approach to career, relationships and life in general becoming more patient.

The final milestone for June was hitting the 5kg weight loss mark. I’ve always struggled with losing weight and keeping it off. Well to be honest I’ve always struggled with caring enough and making it a priority. Maybe the encroaching years are making me think more about that too. For many years I’ve had an 80kg goal. It’s an arbitrary figure but it feels achievable and feels about right for me (5’8” height). I have never got anywhere close. At my heaviest I was around 96kg and 90kg seems to be an all too familiar point that I return to. Hitting 86.1kg after 6 months is giving me great hope that I can get pretty close to that 80kg mythical land by Christmas.

Milestones, whether physical, mental or metaphorical, are just markers that measure the distance that you have come and the distance yet to travel. I’ve got a way to go yet but I love how far I’ve come.