Painful Reminders

If you often find yourself enduring peaks and valleys when it comes to healthy living and working out (like I do), then you know the feeling. The feeling of those eye-opening, post-work out/run muscle aches and pains that come with restarting a fitness regiment. Oh. My. Goodness.

I won't lie to you guys - I've recently found myself tipping the scales at my new highest weight ever. Not proud of it. Not looking for sad panda faces or your typical "you'll do it this time!" comments. Just stating a fact. And when one sees a number they've never seen before, it usually springs them into action. Hence my return to the gym and the blog-osphere. Time to tighten it up and get my mind focusing on the right things (healthy foods, helpful reading materials, supportive environments, etc)

Well, when one sits on their rear for a month straight, it's a hearty wake-up call when they start working those dormant muscles again. Take this morning for instance. Today I decided that I would 'do legs' - which is a weird way to put it, but you all  know what I mean. I have a weight routine that was provided to me by a dear friend and today it had me scheduled for a handful of leg workouts using some of the machines.

I get to the first machine - taken. I head over to the second - occupied. And since these workouts are supposed to go in a certain order, I found myself aimlessly walking around the gym playing the waiting game. It then finally dawned on me - "hey, I don't need machines to work my legs - let's do some lunges." Well I did not know what I was getting myself into. Apparently I forgot how much I weigh because when I got to the end of 60 lunges - 30 on each leg - my legs were noodles. I mean, it was terrible. As a result, I unfortunately abandoned all my other leg workouts.

But instead, I thought it'd be a splendid idea to hit the treadmill for 30 minutes. Let's just say I'll probably be paying for it tomorrow... It's a long road, but it's gotta start somewhere, I suppose. But hopefully these painful reminders will make me realize the need to continue moving forward rather than sitting on the sideline and allowing a month to go by and watching the progress I'd made fizzle out and disappear.

After enduring this same cycle probably 10 times a year for the last 4 years, you'd think I would have put this all together by now. I see a lot of stories of people who decided to lose 50, 75 or 100 pounds and they just did it, and I find myself saying, "wow, I wish I could do that." Well...why don't I? Why do I assume that's something I can't accomplish? It's that mindset I tell ya...it's crucial.

Just thought I'd toss this lunges graphic in here. Also thought it was interesting that I was wearing the same thing during my lunges this morning!

Details, Details, Details

I've never been diagnosed, but I'm pretty sure that I have a twinge of O.C.D. I mean, I do some things that - when I'm finished - I step back and go, "Now why did I do that? Was it really worth all that extra work?" Can anyone relate with this?

For example, I have a Netflix Instant Queue with hundreds of movies, documentaries and TV shows in it. If I have a TV show in the queue, I 100% intend to watch the entire show completely from the beginning. I've restarted "Lost" three times now because "it's been too much time since I started it last time" and watched the entire series of "Prison Break" because I never saw the last season. I write and rewrite and rewrite my To Do Lists so they looks cleaner, and I'm also the guy that would completely rewrite my class notes in college because I didn't think it looked neat enough. I'm also currently listening to a September 7, 2012 episode of a daily podcast that I like because I am trying to catch up (doubt it'll ever happen).

So why doesn't this exhausting process carry over to the health/fitness portion of my life? In recent introspective sessions, I've often pondered this question. And I think I've found the answer...

For me, it's easy to organize and control the physical surroundings around me. It's easy to pick up my laundry, make the bed, organize my desk  or do the dishes. But when it comes to organizing and aligning my mindset and my actions towards a healthier life, that's not as easy... It requires much more effort and dedication and my mind wears out well before my body does. So how does one go about conquering this giant?

That's what I'm still trying to figure out. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that I have a switch that I can flip that automatically turns on self-control, discipline, motivation or commitment, so I guess that means I'm going to have to go it alone. Yikes, that definitely hasn't gotten me anywhere since I started back in 2009... But I'm making the attempt once again to kick this healthier lifestyle into gear, so we'll see how it goes this time!

What have you found that motivates you to commit to life-long, healthy changes in your life? Was it a life event, a particular person, a new-found passion for running? Let me know!

Half Marathon Giveaway WINNER!

Congrats to Bill on winning the FREE registration for the upcoming Allstate 13.1 Marathon in June! Thanks to everyone who commented on the post - thanks for reading and I hope to have some more posts coming your way soon!

Happy running, everyone!