Getting Fit One Day At A Time
Losing weight and getting fit is hard, but don’t let yourself get discouraged. Getting rid of all that excess fat is just like a lot of things… the best way is one day at a time. If one day, you have a setback, just try harder the next, but don’t beat yourself up about it. That will almost certainly lead to failure. Over eating seems to be in some ways, a symptom of depression so it’s really important to keep positive and upbeat. One day at a time does not mean not to set goals. It just means that between the goals, live in the now. It also means that just because you back-slide one day, you can still win the next day and the next. Also try to learn from your setbacks instead of dwelling on the negative of them.
This thinking is from Alcoholics Anonymous, but it applies to lots of things. For alcoholics, this can be of life or death importance. Usually, losing weight is not quite as serious, but it is very important for long-term health. A huge amount of our health problems today are directly related to people being over-weight and out of shape.
A while ago, I woke up thinking bad thoughts about the fact that I had had some sweets the night before. My wife had just gotten a huge basket full of sweets for Mother’s Day and I seem to have a real problem with late-night snacking while watching TV. That morning, I just decided to put extra energy into my morning workout and I felt really positive again!! The basket got hidden away for a week!! It’s OK to cheat once in a while. It’s bad to dwell on the negatives.
For a month or so, I was on a real plateau. My weight stayed the same and my workouts didn’t seem to be improving. One of the ways I have been gauging myself is how many and how well I am able to do pullups. During this time, they were not improving at all, but I just kept doing my workout anyway even though I was feeling pretty discouraged at times. I just had to remember that when I first started, all I could do was 3 pullups while pushing myself up off the floor. During this “plateau time” I was doing 7 pullups with only a slight cheat push. Each day I just kept going and reading about what to eat to improve my health and help myself get fit faster. That is the subject of a whole different article, but the point is that I didn’t just quit. I kept moving forward one day at a time and got past it. I am now making progress again I’m happy to say, and am at 10 pullups now. I also beat my last best time for my run of two weeks ago today by 45 seconds!! I’m actually starting to like the way I look albeit I still have a ways to go, I now know I will get there by doing it (you guessed it) one day at a time.
Update on the basket full of sweets: It’s been 3 weeks and there is still lots of them left. Back in the old days, it would have been all eaten up in a couple of days!!!
Just remember, keep positive one day at a time. Think: get fit, get fit, get fit and YOU CAN DO IT!!!…