Exercise and Your Self Image

Whew. I am so tired. It was a long (but good) day at work but coming home and working out and then going out for a long bike ride was just what I needed. I feel at peace. I'm still on this controlling what I eat kick. I calculated out that yesterday was around 750 calories (including the flavored water). Today so far I'm at about 550-600. Amazingly enough, eating less has led to more drinking so my water has soared to over 100 ounces.

How long will I do this? I don't know. When I hang with good friends, I pick things up from them. I picked this up from a friend late last week. Apparently its been an unhealthy but rather production tool for them over the course of their life. I wondered if I could do it, could live that way. Guess I'm finding my answer. I don't find it overly difficult, in fact I'm getting pretty used to it. I assume that if I kept it up long enough, it would become habit. Don't know if I want to go that far. But I'll probably continue through the end of the week.

I haven't changed my mind -- I want to push down to 195. That's about 18 lbs from where I am now. I'm exercising and getting in a good deal of protein after I finish so I'm sure the 18 lbs won't come from the used muscle. What I wonder is if I actually have 18 lbs of fat to lose. Guess we'll see. According to the BMI scale, I do.

I'm starting to get into the elliptical too. My next step is to bump it up an extra 15 minutes. Then once I get used to that, I'm going to start running in addition to the elliptical. I don't have a specific timeframe for this (I don't do timeframes) but I'd honestly like to be running 5 or more miles by at least the end of the summer. We'll see. Next summer I want to join some of my friends/colleagues in running the half marathon up in Ogden.

Many of you have stated that you hate exercise. I totally relate and understand. Up until now that is. I think hate of exercise is like hate of math. If you have the wrong mindset, you're screwed. You can't think of exercise as a have-to. You can't think "oh I have to get in shape." Once you make it a have-to, it's downhill.

When I first started this exercise journey, it was painful to try and get myself to do it. As I started realizing where the journey was taking me, that the exercise could alleviate my stress (it really is cathartic), that it was going to help me get to where I wanted to go (which is where I was headed when I started the weight loss), it's all become different now. Granted it wasn't at first but it so is now. I'm exercising every day now. I missed a couple of days last week due to a long date and time with my daughter but otherwise I was there every day. And this week I want to exercise every day and unless something better comes up, I'm there.

Some of you, I'm sure, have this image of yourself in your mind. This image is a toned version of yourself. Well, losing the weight is definitely a start. But any toned person you see isn't just skinny. They have spent time, put the hours in, to exercise. This means working out. Find your motivation. Find your reason. If you like hiking then thrill as your leg muscles get stronger. Start off small. Start with 30 minutes a day. If you don't like going to the gym, buy an elliptical. But do something that makes you breath hard (and sex does count but you have to do more than just sex -- well unless that's your job and you're doing it like 150 times a day) and makes your leg muscles wear out. Then as you get into that, add some weights and crunches. It's all part of the process. You're becoming like everyone else. Take this opportunity to become the person you want to be. Become the image in your head.