Back to Supergirl status
Yeah, yeah. I know some people are so disciplined and driven that it's unthinkable for them to not do what they "should" do, but that's not me. From the number of anti-procrastination books out there, I'm guessing it might be you, too.
I lost almost 20 pounds in 2009, which was a major accomplishment for me. Let's just say I'm impulsive and tend to pick the chocolate over the workout. That character flaw aside, I did get the job done and was doing fairly well at keeping the weight off until early this summer. In early July, I was feeling mushy around the middle and schlumpy. My biking had dropped off since my bike-a-day experiment and I had totally dropped my core workouts.
A quick visit to the scale confirmed by suspicion. I'd gone beyond that number on the scale that I said I wanted to avoid.
I didn't want to lose ground, so I scheduled a couple of bike rides with Elle, a few hikes with my family and asked my husband if I could sneak in a workout before he went to work in the morning.
After about two weeks of this, I noticed an interesting change. In those moments before I opened by eyes in the morning, I had the impulse to go for a bike ride. Or a short run. Yeah, that sounded perfect! Please note that these thoughts were coming from by head. The same head that was deliberately keeping my eyes shut at 6 a.m. a few weeks earlier with the hopes of catching an additional 15 minutes of snoozing.
It hit me. I wasn't forcing myself every day to get out of bed or get on my bike. There was no internal trash-talking thinly veiled as motivation. The exercise was just happening.
Lord knows, this switch wasn't due to discipline; it was about habit. I'd created a habit of getting out and moving, and now that habit was doing the driving, not its couch-sitting, sugar-eating, why-bother alter ego. I could easily switch back to my lay-in-bed habit, but the bottom line (no pun intended) was that it didn't feel good. Getting out and moving felt far better.
As the weeks ticked by, this positive voice was consistently louder than the slacker voice, so I've gotten in a 100-mile workout week (mostly biking), I ran a 5k that I didn't train for with my fastest time yet, and I'm hovering close to my target weight.
No miracles or magic willpower here. Just a little habit that could.
Take that, willpower.
thanks to this post, i snuck out for a ride tonight. i'm going to try to make it more of a daily habit if at all possible. at the very least, i could use my elliptical in the basement. i feel so much better about everything when i get moving for at least 20-30 minutes a day.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Yep, it's all about getting back into a good habit. I'm trying to get back into my own good habit and now that I don't have a job that was taking almost every hour of my waking life, I have no excuse. Yet, I have yet to do what you've done. I ride to work every day and use my bike for my main form of transportation, but my work commute is short, and it's just not nearly enough exercise for me. I've been saying this for more than a few months, so here's hoping your accomplishment gets my sleepy butt out of bed. :-)
ReplyDeleteUgh. I've noticed the same thing this summer. Gettin' a little soft around the middle. I don't like how that feels. Guess that's my ticket to play more:)
ReplyDeleteGood job getting after it!
My midsection is not my closest friend right now. My running has dropped off significantly since we moved to high elevation Flagstaff and like Catastrophes, my daily bike commute is short. I'm trying to make piece with the idea that the point is more to stay physically active and healthy vs. maintaining a super tight middle but I just really miss being able to sit without squishing anywhere. I am trying to be more conscious of portion size because I am unlikely to return to former running mileage until we relocate to a lower elevation.
ReplyDeleteShe Rides--I only run about once a week for 30 minutes, and it really makes a difference. I also make sure I get in another hour-long ride once a week, and then I do a core weekend that my friend lovingly calls "Butt Check." I haven't had the courage to post it on the blog, though. :)
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