“Hi, Ngozi. I don’t mean to meddle in your matter, but looking at the medical report, I have here, you really need to do something.”
Those words caught my attention.
“I know life is hard, and surviving in Lagos can be harder than people realise. But you need to make time for your health. Otherwise, you may not live long enough to enjoy everything you’ve worked so hard for in good health”.
She wasn’t trying to be a prophet of doom, she said, but the reality could be different if I didn’t take precautions. My BMI was 38. My blood sugar was high. My blood pressure was too high. I needed to do something: exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables, avoid late-night meals, drink more water, cut down on soda, sleep seven to eight hours. I listened.
But somewhere in my head, another voice was asking, how did we get here?
Back in January 2025, I’d told myself this was the year, “New Year, New Me.” I’d been gaining weight almost daily, eating everything I set my eyes on. January came and went. “February, let me just enjoy this one.” “March, I’ll start next month.” And so it went, month after month, intention without discipline, until that check-up put everything I’d been postponing in black and white.
Then came the questions. I said I’d take my health seriously, and its already September, is it too late? Should I just wait for 2026 and start afresh? A quote I’d heard many times wouldn’t leave me alone, Karen Lamb’s: “A year from now, you may wish you had started today.” Still, another voice argued for waiting until next year.
On the night of September 16th, after much back-and-forth with myself, I took one small step: I walked around my estate. Just that. And when I got back, I felt lighter, not physically yet, but mentally. Something had shifted. So, I did it again the next day, and the next. I started walking at night, followed cardio videos on YouTube, paid attention to what I ate, cut certain meals, added more fruit and vegetables and water, and kept showing up. It stopped being something I forced myself to do. I had locked in.
Three months later, on December 16th, I stepped on the scale: 15kg down. Not a secret formula, not a new person, I’d simply stopped waiting for the perfect time and started using the time I had. I felt healthier, happier, proud of myself. Looking back now, after losing 24kg in 11 months, that Karen Lamb quote means something else entirely to me. Because I almost didn’t start.
And I wonder how many of us are doing the same thing in other areas of our lives, a course we meant to take, savings we meant to start, a book, a skill, our finances, that one thing we’ve been talking about for months. Now it’s September, and it’s tempting to say, “I’ll just start next year.”
But what if you started now? It doesn’t have to be dramatic, make the enquiry, pick up the book, put ₦1,000 aside. As daddy always says, pay yourself first. Three months isn’t much time, but it’s enough to build momentum. Locking in isn’t about doing it perfectly; it’s about showing up for yourself, choosing discipline over another excuse, the first walk, the first page, the first naira saved, the first step, and then doing it again tomorrow.
As the proverb goes: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” Maybe January passed. Maybe the months since were messy. But September is here, and December is coming. So, before you write off the year, ask yourself: what would I be grateful I started today, when I look back?
Start there. Start small. Be disciplined, be realistic, be consistent. One day you’ll look back and wonder how you did it in such a short time, and your December self may have just one thing to say to you:
“Thank you for starting”.
