Just as I start getting excited for fall, summer makes a come back. It’s a sweaty 93 degrees today. Guess I’ll just have to enjoy an iced pumpkin coffee rather than a hot one.
At first I thought iced and pumpkin didn’t go together – but after one sip, I was proven wrong.
When I receive emails from readers, they’re most often regarding weight loss. I’ve noticed that no matter how different each person’s weight gain/loss story may be, a feeling of frustration seems to go along with it. Frustration certainly made an appearance throughout many of my weight loss attempts.
For many of us (myself included), gaining weight is easy. It’s the whole losing weight and keeping it off thing that poses a problem.
In today’s society, gaining weight seems to be easier than ever. If you so choose, you could sit at a desk all day, eat fast food for all of your meals, and then plop on the couch in front of the TV for the evening. That truly would be an easy route to chose.
Losing or maintaining weight is a whole different scenario. Chances are, your day may still involve sitting at a desk all day (mine often does). Which just means that you have to be that much more diligent during your free time.
You may have to wake up an hour earlier to hit the gym. Maybe you have to sacrifice some TV time to go for an evening run or hit up a group exercise class. Not only that, but you have to invest some time into meal planning and prep. Whew, it all seems tedious when you think about it.
Even if you’ve never been there yourself, it seems easy to understand how others may become frustrated throughout the process. All that work and only small almost unnoticeable changes to show for it?
In reality, it’s all worth it – even the frustration. If it were an easy process, everyone would be at their happy weight. It may take a little tweaking to fit new things into your lifestyle, but after a while it will just become habit.
Don’t give it too much thought. Just do it (oh hey, I’m a Nike ad). But seriously, Nike was really onto something with that one.
When you’re sitting there thinking about your work out (why you don’t want to do it or what you would rather be doing) – you’re wasting time that could be valuable. Not only that, but opening up the opportunity to talk yourself out of your work out.
I was guilty of this just a few days ago. After dropping off Adam at school, I put on my running clothes in anticipation of a midmorning run. It was my day off and I wanted to get my work out done early so that I could get a boost of energy and in turn be productive.
Instead of just doing it, I got distracted and then said ‘oh well, I’ll run in the afternoon.’
After eating lunch, I thought ‘hmm, I should really wait until my food is fully digested before hitting the pavement.’
Before I knew it, it was time to pick up Adam from school. Still no run.
In my own defense, I did end up going for a run in the evening – but I could have saved myself a lot of time (and rearranging) if I had just got out there and done in when I first intended to.
I’m not perfect and this will definitely happen again in the future. Nevertheless, it’s worth acknowledging.
A simple, yet effective mantra. Thanks Nike!
And with that, I’m off.
Have a wonderful day. Don’t think about your run/walk/exercise class – JUST DO IT.
