So I had a plan of action brewing in my head: food, exercise, support. I had activated the food part of the plan, now it was on to fitness. I had been working out at Miracles since it opened in 2007, but I hadn’t really seen the results that I wanted. I would go stretches of working out 3 days a week, and then taking a few weeks or months off. With bouts of working part-time, pregnancies, children, and running a home, it wasn’t always easy to take time for myself.
After talking to my husband Dan about it, I realized that I wasn’t working out enough, and I probably needed to up my intensity. So I decided that I needed some kind of activity in my day every day whether that meant going to the gym, taking a walk, working out at home, etc. I knew that I needed to show myself that I could do it.
For the first 4 weeks, I worked out every day, mostly at the gym and a couple times at home. I began to see some of my weaknesses rear their ugly heads:
I didn’t want to go to the gym; there was a good show on HGTV.
I didn’t feel like going; the kids had worn me out that day.
I didn’t want to get up that early; I deserved to sleep.
I’m doing all this work; it probably won’t help anyway.
Other people lose weight, not me. (UGH!!)
I had to fight these negative thoughts and patterns! The commitment and goal that I had made to work out everyday helped me overcome those excuses. I had to make myself get up, get my shoes on, and get out the door. I was learning to persevere again. (I also tested Dan on this. I would say, “I don’t feel like going tonight, “ and he would say, “Then take the night off, “ and I would yell, “You’re not supposed to say that! You have to tell me to go!”)
After the first few weeks I gave myself a break and worked out about 5 days a week. It got easier, and I actually felt good once it was done. There were times, of course, that if I had to be on the elliptical one more minute, I would scream (!!!), but it felt good once the 20 or 30 minutes was up. It also felt good to look back at the week and see that I had kept my commitment, that I had met my goal. A sense of accomplishment. I was going more, so would I see the results? More about that later . . .
