When I first wrote about losing weight—close to 50 pounds in the end—with my Apple Watch and HealthKit, I was a bit nervous about being so open about my personal life. Being overweight, and the struggles associated with that, is not something many of us want to talk openly about. I’m glad I did because it helped me and helped a lot of people in my situation.

Recently I found myself in a familiar circumstances: life got in the way of my plans to exercise every day. It happens—no matter your best intentions, life comes up and throws a wrench in your plans. Suddenly you find yourself not exercising for a week, or two, or even more, as it was in my case.

The result of this is not just physical—it’s mental too. You start to make excuses, validating the reasons for not getting out there and doing your daily walk (my favorite exercise).

I tried to pick up where I left off with my exercise routine. On a treadmill, that’s a pace of 3.5 mph, and some weight lifting afterwards. Unfortunately, with my absence, picking up at that pace was very difficult for me to maintain. The result was taking even more time off.

Of course, I knew that wasn’t the best thing, but I continued to make excuses so I wouldn’t feel so bad about not exercising.

One day, I looked at the rings on my Apple Watch and had enough. They were not being filled and I was not feeling good about myself any more. Something had to change.

I knew I couldn’t do the pace I had done before, but that’s no reason to not do something. I’ve done this before, so there is no reason I can’t do it again—I just need to start again. That’s what I did.

I remembered back to how I started this journey and began there. I went outside for a short walk—one that I could handle easily, but at a decent pace. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk, and so did my Apple Watch.

You know what else? I continued that walk every day.

Being able to exercise like doing this Asian squat is great for your physical and mental health. It helps me think, and I feel good about myself. I’ve accomplished something.

I’ll work my way back up to the level I was before, I’m not worried about that. I’m just glad I’m back on track. Sometimes starting at the beginning is the best thing to do. Feeling good about yourself and what you’re doing is an important step to being successful.