A Zillion Excuses, and One Reason

I'm heading out to the health club shortly, and wow - this is really about doing what I know I need to do today rather than what I feel like doing! When I worked out there on Monday, it was the first time I'd been there in several months. While it felt wonderful to be back, I kept thinking about how much I was going to hurt afterward :-). In fact, my health club has a sign posted that says, "Pain is the sign of weakness leaving your body." As I moved from weight machine to weight machine, I kept thinking about how much weakness would soon be leaving my body!

I woke up yesterday morning feeling sore pretty much all over my body, which is what I expected. It would have been easy to have given myself permission to take the day off of exercise, but I didn't. I've committed to incorporating regular exercise into my life, so I laced up my shoes, grabbed my iPod and headphones and headed out for an almost hour-long brisk walk. The sun was shining and I spent the hour listening to some wonderful contemporary Christian music (I even sang along part of the time!) - it was a wonderful walk and I was so glad I pushed myself out the door.

There are always a zillion reasons why we can't do something, whether it's staying on plan or exercising or any other positive change we're trying to make in our lives. For me, it's easy to skip exercise if the weather is too hot, too cold, too windy, or rainy; if I'm tired, if I'm busy . . . you get the picture! For some of you who are struggling to stay on plan right now, there is always a party, a get-together, family coming over; there's too much stress or you just don't have time or ?? Like I said, we are all masters of coming up with a million and one reasons - which are really excuses - why we can't do the things that we know we really should be doing. When we don't do the things we know we should do, we end up feeling guilty and frustrated at ourselves. Unfortunately, all too often we keep going back to those million and one excuses and don't make the progress we want to make.

Yep, there are always a zillion and one reasons why we don't do the things we know we should, but there's really only one thing that will nullify all those excuses and get us moving in the direction we want to go. We have to want our goal - really, really want it. Our goal has to be bigger than our excuses.

Last month I wrote about breaking through a pine board with my hand at the convention I went to. That board represents all of the barriers we put up between ourselves and what we really want. When what we want is big enough and important enough, we'll focus on that and not on the obstacles, and once we focus on our goal, we'll be able to break through those zillion and one excuses.

Since I'm really wanting to increase my flexibility and strength, and since I want to increase my percentage of muscle and reduce my percentage of fat (which is MUCH less after losing 126 pounds on this program!), I have to incorporate cardio and strength-training into my life. Every morning I have to make a decision as to whether I'm going to focus on what I really want or focus on the zillion and one obstacles and excuses that stand between me and my goal. Making major changes isn't easy, but staying on 5&1 without cheating for 11 months and losing 126 pounds taught me two things (actually, a lot more than two, but I won't take the time to list them all now!). First, I learned that it IS possible to make a major change at any point in life. Second, making the change isn't easy, but it is SO worth it!

So I'm grabbing my gym bag and my water bottle, I've got my iPod and headphones, and I'm heading out the door! I'm committed to living strong and healthy, and that will happen one day and one good choice at a time. How about you? Are you committed to an on-plan day today?