I am tired and sweaty and … well … feeling great.
The good thing about blogging is that it forces me to think about fitness regularly, and, eventually, I get so tired of my own excuses that there is nothing left to do but just get to it.
This evening I saw a narrow window of opportunity – what with one kid at guitar lessons and another playing basketball, and I climbed on our only somewhat functional treadmill. (Only two buttons work, but, as it turns out, those two are all that I need. If only they worked all the time.)
Anyway, today was my first run in what must be months. I didn’t go far. I didn’t go fast. But I went, and my somewhat beat-up old body is thanking me, and even begging me to do that again tomorrow.
Who knew? Maybe I might just get better at this fitness stuff yet. Maybe.
Short entry tonight. I’m going to try to tackle some other goals now.
When it comes to fitness, I’ve always been good with the excuses:
There’s work: That aerobics class takes place during lunch. I’d be so there, but … I only get an hour for lunch, and, to take the class, I need to make it across the city (campus, hall, room) and change clothes. Then, after class, I have to take a shower, get dressed and head back across the city, (campus, hall, room). How am I gonna do THAT in an hour?
Mommy guilt: It’s an evening class, and it’s late enough that it won’t interfere with work. Woo hoo! Only, wait a minute. It’s at 7 p.m. That’s prime kid time. By the time I get done with work and the kids get done with the extra-curricular activities – by that time, I only get two hours with them. Yeah, I just can’t take away from that time.
More work: Now that the kids are asleep, I just have to finish that one project …
Sleep: I never made it to the gym, so maybe I should do the treadmill. But wait, it’s now 10 p.m. If I get my body all revved up now, I’ll never sleep, so, never mind. I’ll just start on that one other project …
And more sleep: Yeah. Like I’m going to wake up at 5:30 a.m. to work out when I went to bed at midnight. Where’s that flipping snooze button?
Oh, and then there are the excuses that you NEVER say aloud.
So this got me thinking today that all these excuses have gotten me a lot of nothing. Those lean, healthy, agile people? They just got more lean, healthy and agile. Me? I’ve gotten bumpier and more awkward.
As Marc David puts it in his website Body Building Live, “the fit get fitter and the fat get fatter.”
He says, “Many wise teachers have said ‘act as if.’ If you ‘act as if’ you’re slim enough for long enough, then one day you will attract slimness even thought you may be overweight today.”
So let me take this one further.
Today, I’ve been trying to act I didn’t have this bumpy lumpy body; like I’m not a klutz and was picked first – well, at least in the middle – for teams.
To get there, basically, I need to stop worrying about making a fool of myself and just, well, make a fool of myself. Isn’t that the secret to success?
And once I get past those unspoken excuses, the spoken excuses are much, much easier to tackle, don’t you think?
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