madermouse's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/27/01 Did I say that �All you can Eat� was no longer a part of my vocabulary? Just checking. Because by the looks of my past three days food journal you�d think that it WAS a part of my vocabulary. I hit 1825 calories on Monday, 2000 on Tuesday and 2250 on Wednesday. Its time like these that I�m still amazed how much effort this still requires. Even after falling into a pattern of healthy eating, proper rest & daily exercise, its still incredibly easy to slip up. I haven�t hardly been able to get out of bed in the morning either, which resulted in two days of not exercising. I simply lay there trying to justify the reasons why I just �couldn�t� do it today. Monday I had a reason, it was an 8am appt with my ob/gyn doc. But I still could�ve gotten up earlier and exercised before that. There really isn�t any excuse not to do it... And when I listen to other people tell me their reasons for not doing it, it all sounds like bullshit. In fact, it sounds like bullshit when I try to talk myself out of it! The bottom line is that there really isn�t any excuse that�s good enough. (Aside from SERIOUS bodily harm, mental illness, broken leg, death in the family etc...) But the day to day crap excuses like, �I�m too busy�. A one or two mile walk w/Leslie Sansone takes between 12-26 minutes. Hell, the simplest Tae-Bo video is only 8 minutes long! Who doesn�t have 8 minutes somewhere in their day? �I can�t afford to go to a gym.� Really? Neither could I. And 92 pounds later I�ll tell you I exercise on average, about 6 days a week. Do the math. �I�m too tired.� Guess what? I believe you! Because when you don�t move your body and you eat crap, you tend to be exhausted all the time. Buckle down & do it for a week and see how tired you are! �I have no willpower. I can�t make myself do it.� Keep telling yourself that. And the more you tell yourself that an re-affirm what you CAN�T do, then you really won�t be able to. A lot of these excuses are simple math. What you put in, equals what you get out. Period. If you aren�t willing to put forth the effort, then you might as well save yourself the time and mental anguish of giving a half-hearted try. I can�t tell you how many times I tried �dieting� only to fail by mid-afternoon. Then I would beat myself up over it for the next two months.....I would tell myself what a failure I was. Then I would go over all the excuses (see above) until I had somehow justified it in my mind that my health could fall by the wayside - yet again. It was this logic, and these excuses, that manifested my 375lb weight problem. I ask myself, was it worth it? So, I got up this morning, albeit late, put on my tennis shoes, got out my step, popped in my tape in the VCR and blasted through 45 minutes of aerobics. I feel better now. And I�ve noticed that the days I exercise, my appetite is lighter. I have a friend who�s lost 160lbs without any exercise. He brags about it. He�s proud of it. He fasted one day a week and lost that weight over a couple of year�s time. He didn�t really change his diet at all, but he changed the portions of what he ate. He�s a tall, thin, pack a day smoker who consumes copious amounts of cheese, butter, white flour, sugar, and pre-packaged prepared food daily.. He�s had a multitude of health problems, which out of respect I won�t detail, and I would say he�s generally not in very good shape. I went for a CASUAL, STROLLING walk with him, and he tired after about 15 minutes. I look at him and it made me realize something about myself. The thing is people, being thin isn�t the focus here. (Ya, I know its easy for me to say when the scale is moving in the right direction.) But as I�m approaching the half-way point, I�m learning the importance of what I�m doing. I do want the scale to go down, because it�s a measurement of my progress. But as I look at my dear friend who�s lost the weight, but still appears to be unhealthy, I realize what�s really essential. Exercise is indispensable. It isn�t just the icing on the cake of good health, it�s the foundation of which other changes must build from. Exercise is the power tool that you can use to change your life, instead of just getting by with a screwdriver. It is the crucial building block that will motivate you to get your diet under control, to find the depths of your endurance and willpower, to regenerate your body on a cellular level. It�s the keepin young, lookin good, feeling fine, brain stimulating mood-enhancer. Move it, or lose it. Its time to make that decision for yourself today. I challenge you to push yourself for the next week. Really put forth that effort, and feel the results. Start today. 12:56 p.m. - 9/27/01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||