“Someone who’s got what you’ve got is out doing what you’re not.”
I know it was made for an advert for asthma medication, but the truth is, we ALL have our excuses and trials. We ALL have disabilities that we have convinced ourselves are true.
I have a shoulder injury, so I can’t weight train.
I am so overweight that exercise is impossible for me.
I can’t eat vegetables, they hurt my stomach.
I have weak knees, so I can’t exercise.
I don’t have the money for a gym membership.
I’m a big person. I can’t eat like a rabbit for the rest of my life.
I’m busy. I don’t have the time to eat healthy and exercise.
I have heard all of these excuses and FAR more. There are ways around every single one of these excuses and there are people out there with shoulder injuries, bad stomachs, weak knees, little money and high BMIs who are losing weight, keeping healthy and working out every day. EVERYBODY has something that keeps them overweight, but the thin people find ways to work around those excuses.
I love this image from an Asics postcard I got in my SWAG bag for the SLC 5K. She’s titled Sadness:
It’s like running (or any strenuous exercise) gives you a mental shower, washing away all the negative emotions and feelings. I’ve felt that effect before, but I have never depended on exercise to provide a release. I am still using food when I am feeling bad. It’s time I got into the habit of going out for a run or bike ride every time I feel like turning to food when I’m not hungry.
If you need a little inspiration to work on your upper body strength watch this little animated video.
Using only his arms, he appears to be walking on air! The next time you’re thinking of skipping your weight training, remember this guy and imagine yourself being able to do everything that he can do!
Since I am working on my habits, my goal every day is a minimum of exercise. My goal is miniscule. All I require of myself is to walk one single mile every day. It has to be conscious exercise, not the walking accumulated by my regular activities. It needs to be time spent exercising, but all I have to do is one mile.
It’s a hilariously small requirement, but it’s the hardest for me to do each day. I procrastinate it every morning. Most days I put on my gym clothes and then proceed to do everything EXCEPT exercise.
The other day I read this quote. I’m pretty sure it’s a misquote because I can’t find a proper attribution, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
— Mark Twain
Apparently, my live frog is exercise. If I can do it first thing in the morning, then I feel better the rest of the day. My live frog could have been eating healthy oils or planning my meals, but for me, I procrastinate exercising more than anything else.
The next time you’re feeling frustrated with your healthy lifestyle, sit down and think about your own live frog. Is it writing down everything you eat? Is it planning healthy meals? Is it working all your vegetables into your diet? Whatever it is, conquer it as early in the day as possible and the rest of your day will go much smoother.
For the next few weeks every Monday, I’ll share a playlist of songs that I have in my Workout Playlist on my iPhone. I’ll include clips to listen to, where you can buy them and why I have them in my list. Just so you know, I do get a portion of the sales of these songs from Amazon, so if you buy them, you’re helping me out.
Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over) by Technotronic: I love this song at the beginning of my workout because those first few steps, I’m really tempted to just quit. I’m still close to home and I could just turn around. This song tells me to “get up and move that body” so many times that I just keep running, even if I’m feeling like going back home.
Sound Of Letting Go by David Guetta – Tocadisco – Chris Willis: This song has a great beat and it starts out with the phrase, “This is the point of no return because this is where we crash and burn. And now every time I face this pain, I can hear it coming back again. It’s the sound of letting go.” I know this song is about breaking up, but sometimes I just need to let go of my images of my old self. Sometimes I need to break up with the person I used to be.
Naturally by Selena Gomez and The Scene: The catchiness of this song is a given, but I love the idea of exercising coming naturally. I like to think that I’ll eventually become the kind of person for whom “everything comes naturally.”
Growing Pains by La Roux: This song reminds me that I am changing and I might run into stumbling blocks on the way. “Oh, I make mistakes and you just say it’s growing pains. When I feel ashamed you tell me it’s just growing pains.” Instead of continuing a binge, I can stop myself, put this song on my iPod and take a quick walk around the neighborhood.
I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas: I absolutely love this song. It has been playing EVERYWHERE, but despite the repetition, I still love this song. Will.i.am is telling me over and over that tonight is going to be a good night. Sometimes I need that kind of positive reinforcement. Fergie tells me that when I feel stressed out and I wanna let it go, that I should go way out and space out. Plus, this is the first pop song to use the phrase “mazel tov” since The Fiddler on the Roof Soundtrack.
You Da Boss by SkinnySongs: “This is your conscience talkin’. You don’t need that piece of pie. Gotta let it go pass you by.” This week’s song from Skinny Songs is a reminder that I’m in charge, not the food. I like to sit down and listen to this song when I’m tempted to eat, but I also keep it in my workout mix to remind myself of why I’m exercising. I’m the boss of my body, too.
Knock You Down by Keri Hilson: I know this song is talking about love, but there are a ton of other things that can knock me down on this journey. The chorus says, “Just get back up when it knocks you down.” I remember this when I slip up with food.
If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback: If today was my last day, I would eat all the food I ever wanted to eat. THAT is the kind of thinking that makes me binge because I deny myself when I don’t need to. Why should I hold off on my life until my last day? Every day, I try to eat something that I would have wanted to eat on my last day so that I don’t feel neglected. I work it into my caloric restrictions and I live every day like it was my last. Oh, and there’s all that other positive stuff that Nickelback says in this song.
Runaway by Cher: This song starts with the words, “Nobody said it would be easy. Nobody gives you guarantees.” It’s okay if exercise isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be. If it were easy, EVERYBODY would have a hard body. Keep working and don’t focus on perfection. Cher continually singing for me to “run away” keeps me running when I want to walk and there is NO better motivation than Cher looking as awesome as she does in her sixties!
Listen to the clips for these songs. If you find just one song this week that motivates you to exercise, then buy it and make it your powersong when you’re working out this week. I bet you’ll find that you’re more willing to get your butt to the gym and your workouts are easier.
I ran this race to get a baseline. I wanted to get a time that I could aim to beat. Well, I have it. It took me 48 minutes to run a race that used to take me 40 minutes.
I guess I can only go up from there. I’ll post my time from my next race and we’ll see how much I have improved.
Yesterday morning, I woke up after a night of not enough sleep and too many dreams of driving across the Nevada desert. I cringed at the thought of running on the hotel treadmill. Despite the clean room and state-of-the-art equipment, I didn’t want to be trapped exercising around other people.
For a moment, I considered blowing off my workout.
It’s always a temptation when I’m out of town. Even if I’m on a trip because of work, I get a vacation mentality and the urge to skip my workouts is strong.
Instead of shirking my exercise routine, I put on my running shoes and ran outside around the street by my hotel. I had to go around the block three times to finish my workout, but I got my mileage in. I was able to escape the hotel exercise room and get out into the sunshine and fresh air before spending another day trapped in a car.
Next time you’re tempted to skip your workout, remember me running around Professional Circle outside my hotel in a strange city. If I can get my butt out the door, so can you.
“Yeah. That wind is WAY too cold for a bike ride.”
“I guess I’ll walk on the treadmill tonight.”
“No, let’s just go outside for a quick walk.”
After much complaining, I got him to put on his coat and brave the icy wind and dandruffy snow for a walk by the lake.
“It’s bloody cold.”
“Yeah, but it’s pretty.”
We found ourselves in the lee of a hill, so the wind abated, but the sun tucked itself behind the clouds, keeping it cold. I pointed at the sky in awe.
“If we didn’t go for this walk, we wouldn’t be able to see that.”
Fitness Magazine provided me with a complimentary subscription in exchange for a monthly review of their magazine.
Once again the cover of the magazine seems incredibly inappropriate for the current weather. This is what it looked like outside my house the first day of April. Do they really expect you to “Walk Your Way Slim” in a bikini when the weather is like this?
That bikini is a FAR cry from the exercise clothing I wore this morning on my run. I find it strange that Fitness Magazine is perpetually in a state of sunshine and summer when the majority of their readership is still suffering with snow storms and icy wind pushing against them on their morning runs. It’s as if they aren’t connected to the earth the way the rest of us are.
They did have one good article about eating healthy when you’re eating out called “Fast Food Lite?”
Aryen Jackson-Cannady, a Fitness Magazine writer, tried eating out every day at lunch and she found a great selection of healthy things to eat. It IS possible to lose weight and eat out every day as long as you choose wisely. I love that they were willing to admit that amid this war on fast food.
I also liked Caroline Hwang’s Fit Test article about the TrekDesk, which is a big desk that fits around your treadmill and allows you to work while you exercise.
This month’s FitnessFix was about a woman who LOVED spinning class, but was afraid to get on a real bike. It is the best article in the magazine this month, highlighting that you should get a bike that fits you. I can’t stress how important this is. My bike is a 13 inch frame, which is usually a size for kids, but it is the only bike that has fit me. No matter what you need, make sure you get a bike that fits your body.
This month’s Fitness Magazine is definitely worth the money. Pick up a copy and tell me what you think!
For the next few weeks every Monday, I’ll share a playlist of songs that I have in my Workout Playlist on my iPhone. I’ll include clips to listen to, where you can buy them and why I have them in my list. Just so you know, I do get a portion of the sales of these songs from Amazon, so if you buy them, you’re helping me out.
World by Five For Fighting: This is a great warmup song and it reminds me that I create the world around me. I love the lyrics of the chorus: What kind of world do you want? Think anything. Let’s start at the start. Build a masterpiece. Be careful what you wish for. History starts now…
Don’t Stop by Annie: Sometimes STARTING is the hardest part of my workout. Having a high energy song like this one that tells me to not stop, is very helpful. Plus the chorus sings, “Let’s go!” If I can keep running through this first song, it’s a lot easier to keep running through the whole workout.
Use It To Lose It by SkinnySongs: This week’s song from Skinny Songs sounded kind of lame to me when I first heard it. It sounded like it was trying too hard to be cool. The chorus, however, is so catchy that I found myself remembering it. “You’ve got to use it, babe, to lose it.” Now, I love the song when it comes up on iPod.
Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall: I love this song, because I want to be like the girl that KT is singing about. Plus, it’s written from the point of view of someone just like me, who wants to be the girl that everyone loves.
Live Like We’re Dying by Kris Allen: This song is on the radio every time I turn it on, so it’s hard to escape, but I still love it. It’s a great concept. I love this lyric, “We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to turn it all around or to throw it all away.” Spend your day wisely and spend a few of those seconds making your health better.
Shake That Bubble by Young and Divine: I want to be that “fly senorita” that all the guys want to see dance. Exercising every day is the best way to get to be that girl, so this song is a great motivator for me.
Hard by Rihanna: This is one of those bragging songs. I’m not really the kind of person who ever feels like she’s the “hottest b**ch in heels right here.” I’d like to be that person, so this song is good for me.
I Wanna Life by Goldfrapp: I am total fan of Alison Goldfrapp, so I bought the new album without previewing even one of the songs. After listening to it nonstop for the last week, this is my favorite song for working out. It makes me think about what I want from my life, plus the beat is great for running.
One Step Beyond by Madness: This is the perfect song for the end of my workout. At the beginning of the song, Captain Sensible is yelling at me, urging me to take “One Step Beyond!” I really kick up my workout and run a little harder when I hear his voice and end my workout strong.
Saved By Zero by The Fixx: I’ve talked before how the word “zero” is motivational to me because it urges me to try to get a little closer to size zero clothes. This a great cool down song after a hard workout.
Listen to the clips for these songs. If you find just one song this week that motivates you to exercise, then buy it and make it your powersong when you’re working out this week. I bet you’ll find that you’re more willing to get your butt to the gym and your workouts are easier.
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