Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Sometimes it all seems too much. Eating healthy, finding the right exercise program and keeping cravings under control can just seem overwhelming. When I looked at all the weight I had to lose, there were times when I felt like I was defeated before I even started.

“Getting Started” used to mean finding a diet, buying the correct food for the diet, preparing a food journal to keep track of the correct food on the diet, finding the correct exercise program, buying whatever items I needed to exercise with, setting up a journal to record the exercise that I did with the correct items, and the list never ended. I usually enjoyed “Getting Started” a lot more than actually following whatever fad diet I had latched my hopes on.

Following the diet meant being perfect. Every fad diet promises great results only if you are willing to follow the regime with exactitude. The second that I fell into old habits, I would feel like I had “Blown It.” “Blown It” has its own rules of behaviors that involved eating whatever I felt I had been denied when I was “Getting Started.”

It took years for me to realize that I didn’t have to do it all perfectly all the time. “Getting Started” doesn’t mean to me what it did before. I no longer need to purchase strange food or expensive exercise equipment. “Getting Started” means putting one foot in front of another every day. I don’t need to be perfect in order to be healthy and lose weight. I don’t need to ever endure another “Blown It” binge episode. All I need to do is get myself out of bed every morning and stay committed to making good choices.