#30: Put Yourself First

On your journey to fitness, a healthier lifestyle and a physically improved you, it is important that you put yourself first.

What you eat is not going to affect your spouse or your roommate or your best friend or your co-workers. Whether or not you exercise is not going to affect anyone but yourself. YOU are the one you have to please and YOU are the one who ultimately will make wise or unwise decisions.

You are the only one you can count on when others wave chocolate cake in front of you or a slice of cheesecake or a box of candy all under the guise that "just one bite won't hurt you."

But it will, even if it is your decision to indulge every time a temptation faces you. Mentally it will shatter your self-control, dissolve your commitment and tear at you emotionally.

This does not mean you can't choose to have a sugary or other treat now and then. But make it YOUR decision to do so. Others are not being supportive when they parade in front of you the foods you are trying to avoid. It doesn't matter how they couch their efforts or try to justify them, others do not support you when they do not try to help you.

Ask yourself if those people closest to you, those people you see the most often, are encouraging your desire for a physical change or if they are sabotaging your efforts by their uncaring attitudes. Very often, other people do not want you to succeed because they then will see failure in themselves. They will often compare themselves to the new you and experience feelings they are not prepared to address.

If you are to complete your journey to a healthier lifestyle, YOU are the one who must be responsible for your decisions. Others can not choose what you will eat. You do that. Others can not exercise for you. You must do that yourself.

The decisions made along the road to fitness and better health are yours and yours alone. Therefore, YOU must choose to do what is in YOUR best interest. Others can not choose for you. This is YOUR journey. It is up to YOU to walk the road to health the way YOU decide to walk it. Any failure will be YOURS. But the ultimate success will be also be YOURS.

And that is why you must put yourself first.