My current 12-week body challenge door is about to close, while another opens.(The Body Challenge is the program I utilize for community support, weight loss tools and fitness classes.) At three-month increments, I end and then start a fresh twelve-week challenge with veteran participants alike and new “green” members, seemingly like fish out of water. Everyone arrives at beginnings differently, some distrusting from being duped by the diet industry, several open with a hint of nervous excitement and opportunity awaiting, while others trust the process immediately. Whichever pile each individual originates from, all are worthy of reaching their goals. As an experienced Body Challenger helping their acclimation into a new lifestyle, it is a novel awakening, inspiring, energizing, and rewarding. New beginnings refresh the journey.

By hitting the refresh button, an excitement is revisited, engaged by reframing and renewing the knowledge and wisdom that transformed us initially. Like a starting line with newfound energy and vigor for the next 12-week cycle, we pivot into drive, away from coasting, no longer running on empty fumes and final sprints to the finish line. That race falls behind us, remains in history, while new avenues establish fresh paths to carve and pave, alternative strategies yet to come, and non-scale victories on the horizon. No longer bursts of weight loss, but instead tiny increments of pounds drop to cross a major finish line onto the last lap of lifetime weight and fitness maintenance, full of strength, self-assurance, and pride. Living in the body you imagined, comfortable in your skin, and becoming the person you were meant to be is a lifetime victory, a marathon rather than a sprint.

Refining our tools for a lifestyle of clean eating and healthy boot camp classes is the continued journey. Given a repeatable shot to right the wrong is the born buoyancy built into healthy living. Each trip down the Body Challenge Lane enables me to strengthen my practice, learn from the errors of my ways, and enhance the success rate of hard work, dedication, and resilience. To regain footing when it slips, return to the track when off roaded by distractions, and pick ourselves up when life shoots us down, are part of the path. Recognizing that struggle exists in any lifestyle when interruptions lead us astray, yet doing what needs to be done consistently over time is the foothold of ultimate, long term success. Hitting the refresh button repeatedly enables improvement, increased motivation, and resilience.