Are you traveling this path alone, or with your significant other?
Joey and I started on this path in earnest on October 19th 2010. He eventually went veggie, I went vegan and we've both become pretty health conscious. He's lost about 22 lbs, I've lost almost 70 now. (He doesn't have nearly as much to lose.)
Exposure Therapy
Joey has a fairly wide streak of social anxiety. He came with me to the gym the day I got my free 3 day pass earlier this week. He even came on the tour of the gym with me, which was panic inducing for him. I had butterflies, but he was shaking and miserable just sitting in the waiting area after the tour, and he was all alone.
Today I asked him to sign up for the 3day pass. I know right now he doesn't have the time or the drive to get a membership, he just wouldn't use it enough for it to matter. But I wanted him to expose himself to the idea, I think exposure therapy is good for him, in many ways.
I think it can help a lot of people. Sure it's uncomfortable at first, but like I always say, if you're making a major life change and you're not uncomfortable, you're probably doing it wrong. ;)
Thankful for not having to go it alone
So, he took a few of my klonopin and caught my bus, we went in and I officially joined, and he got his 3 day pass. He was actually pretty calm and doing okay, and then after an hour (they were closing early), he didn't seem to want to leave. He only came near panic once, and he calmed down before things got weird.
Either way, I love him, and I'm really glad that I'm not doing this alone. For those of you who are afraid of being judged or afraid of the crowd or whatever it is, social anxiety, whatever, sometimes the best thing you can do to conquer a thing is to just get up and do it, even if you're scared. Today, Joey was scared. I'm so proud of him.
I keep a fortune from a cookie in my wallet that joey sent off with me on my first day of school once, and it said:
"Courage is the hallmark of a warrior."
and another that says, "You never know what you can do until you try." and one that says "Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds."
When joey is the one to get these inspirational fortunes and mine says something like, "your intelligence is greatly admired." (snicker), he gives me his and says, "this one was meant for you."
He's perfect like that.
Good for each other !
ReplyDeleteYAY! That was awesome of him to be willing to put himself in that situation and awesome of you to get him to test his limits. Often our limits are so much higher than we think they are :) Having a SO or BF who can join you on the journey helps so much. My hubby joined the plan I was on for a few weeks with me just to support me. I can't maintian it during the summer with all the kids in the house so we've went back to basic healthy eating but he's still right there with me on everything. It does make a difference.
ReplyDeleteVery cute of him...and I'm proud of him for doing the gym!
ReplyDeleteI am doing this journey with my husband. So far I'm down 67 pounds and he's down 58. Like you two, he has less to lose than me. I have 79 more to go and he only has 18. We'll get there!