A few years ago after I had our son, I wanted to continue working out so my only choice was to take him with me.  I couldn’t leave him at home and I knew if I waited to go in the evening when my husband got home, I wouldn’t go.  So, he and I went to the gym every morning.  The first few months, he was able to watch me from the baby carrier.  One day he began to get fussy having to sit and watch for 30 minutes so I began holding him in a Forward-facing carrier.  This took an adjustment.  I went from walking on the treadmill with no weight to walking on the treadmill with a 20 pound 5 month old.  It was much more difficult but after a few times, it got easier and I hardly noticed the extra weight.  It had become a part of me.

A few months later, I went for a run around the block one evening.  A couple days later, I wanted to run, but I had to take my one year old with me.  I strapped him in to an umbrella stroller (not even a fancy jogging stroller) and we took off.  It was much different from running by myself, free of extra weight.  I had to balance myself against the stroller and occasionally readjust the stroller’s wheels which got stuck on rocks.  It was sort-of frustrating and much harder than I thought it would be.  I only did that a couple of times.  I refused to carry that extra weight.

How many times have we added extra weight to our lives (i.e. new responsibility, someone else’s problem, insurmountable debt, etc.) only to discover the extra weight is difficult to manage?  Over time, we grow accustomed to it and it doesn’t faze us as much.  But, it is still extra weight.  What if we could rid ourselves of the extra weight and get back to the place of freedom?  How would that feel again?  How much faster and more efficiently could we run?

Then, there are times when extra weight is thrown on us such as unemployment, loss of a loved one, divorce, or a runaway child.  We must adjust to the added pressure and keep going. How do we shift that weight or rid ourselves of it?  How do we begin to move forward?  It is a process and may be different for everyone.  The key is that we take one step at a time to peel back the layers one day at a time.  We’ll need a loving support network and accountability group, but we will one day feel much freer again.

If you have added extra weight that you can shed, take a moment and devise a plan of how to get rid of it and refocus on how to run your best race.  If extra weight was thrown at you, begin the process today of shedding the weight one piece at a time.  Give yourself a goal date of when you’d like to run without the weight and go for it.

~Coletta Jones Patterson

Coletta is an author, life coach, business executive and weekly blogger.  Connect with Coletta at info@moveu4ward.com.

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