I’m on vacation this week. Some of these posts may be a bit short, but they were written to give you something to read while I’m traveling as well as to continue on our ongoing themes:

Every day is another challenge. It’s another opportunity to do great things, and it’s another opportunity to slide backwards. Most days I just hope I can break even.

On one hand, it’s great to make strides. Some days I make huge ones, like the day earlier this month when I rode sixty miles, or the day I started swimming with goggles and made marked improvement over the week before.

On the other hand, setbacks can be disappointing. When I was sick and canceled my 70 mile ride, or when I cramped badly while swimming and had to stop. Not only did I not make strides forward, I didn’t even stay where I was.

That said, it appears to me the biggest difference between people who do well with their athletic goals and the ones who don’t is that the ones who have those setbacks don’t give up–and the ones who fail give up when facing the same challenges.

If there’s any one thing I can say, one sentence to tell people what was the most important thing in all of this fight for fitness and against diabetes, it’s this:

Don’t give up.