{"id":203,"date":"2013-03-04T09:56:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T09:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianberkman.com\/?p=203"},"modified":"2023-08-25T09:17:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T09:17:19","slug":"achieve-small-goals-to-re-educate-yourself-to-what-you-can-achieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/?p=203","title":{"rendered":"Achieve small goals to re-educate yourself to what you can achieve."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/brianberkman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pringle-Bay-path-and-handklip-in-distance.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-226\" alt=\"Pringle Bay path and handklip in distance\" src=\"http:\/\/brianberkman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pringle-Bay-path-and-handklip-in-distance-300x224.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The most amazing thing about the experience as I was running up the mountain (yes, I said running) is that never in my wildest dreams did I believe it could ever be possible.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s face the truth: if change for the better were easy, everyone would do it. It isn\u2019t easy but it isn\u2019t impossible or as difficult as I imagined it would be.\u00a0 I think what shifted for me which allowed me to keep to my weight-loss plan was that I had a clear short-term goal to lose 10% of my body weight in anticipation of the planned surgery. I was motivated by the possibility of reducing the risk that I would die during surgery. Of course I \u201cknew\u201d the risk my obesity placed on my health but I continued to lie to myself that I had no choice in managing it.<\/p>\n<p>When I realised that I could lose 10% of my body weight, 15kg at that time, I knew that I could lose more. I am so grateful that fate dealt me the delays to the intended surgery dates that it did which allowed me to make this transformation myself, without the need for bariatric surgery.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MNIgjJ4xzO8\">A YouTube clip of me on top of the mountain<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned:<\/p>\n<p>1) I am able to make life-affirming decisions rather than life-threatening ones.<\/p>\n<p>2) I am able to shake off the need for any prescription medication by eating and exercising differently.<\/p>\n<p>3) I am able to not only endure but also to enjoy physical challenges.<\/p>\n<p>4) I\u2019m not a wuss.<\/p>\n<p>5) I can still enjoy eating and preparing food even though I don\u2019t eat starch, sugar or drink alcohol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most amazing thing about the experience as I was running up the mountain (yes, I said running) is that never in my wildest dreams did I believe it could ever be possible. Let\u2019s face the truth: if change for the better were easy, everyone&nbsp;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/?p=203\">&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21,22,154],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weight_loss","tag-brian-berkman","tag-brianberkman","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2430,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/2430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianberkman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}