First day carrying out my new mantra

So... I just exercised. Thirty minutes of intense activity. It was so exhilarating and it felt so good!! The thing about exercise is that I make it worse than it actually is. I think I've set the standard so high that I couldn't follow it, so I considered myself a failure. About two years ago, I was obsessed with the gym; I was consistent for a whole year. My plan was cardio for an hour six days a week and weight lifting for an hour three times a week. I was in the gym almost everyday. It was hard to maintain, and during my finals, I stopped going. When I tried going to the gym again that was the standard, and when I couldn't do it, it was so discouraging to me that I stopped altogether. Since then, I've had trouble getting back into the mix. So today when I exercised just now, I realized what I loved about the gym a couple of years ago. It was the idea of pushing myself and the feeling I had after a workout. I didn't do the whole hour of cardio, and I didn't do the exercises I used to do, but I had fun! So the tip I can share with everyone is make exercise work for you. Pick activities that you like, not what you think is good or what you've read about. For me, I don't like doing the same exercises for long periods of time. It's just boring. What I tried today is sprinting on the treadmill until I didn't feel like it anymore, until I was bored. Then I did jump ropes or jumping jacks to keep my heart rate up. Then I would go back and sprint on the treadmill again. Because I exerted so much effort, I finished in thirty minutes. I suggest doing cardio exercises until boredom sets in and switching to another one. It makes thirty minutes go by faster. Exercise is more manageable when it's fun, so the more you like something the more you'll do it. Good luck!!!

My new mantra

I was putting on my running shoes a few seconds ago and I realized that I really do need a new mantra. I've been told that the thing that holds me back is my mindset. For my whole life I've been so scared of failure that my mantra has been "why bother?" I tried to find what mantra will inspire me to action, and at first I thought it should be "Do or do not. There is no try." But then I realized that maybe I don't want a mantra that is supposed to inspire me to action when said words of inspiration are spoken by Yoda. These words are profound... but it actually backfired on me. I opted for "do not." So as I was lacing up my faded running sh0es, I heard a voice in my head and it said: "No excuses." This is me in a nutshell. I'll spend an hour in my head thinking of all the reasons I can't work out. I have a midterm. I have work. I have a paper. I have reading that needs done. In that hour that I've outlined all the reasons I can't, I've done absolutely nothing, not even one thing from the list of things that need to be done. So today when I was getting ready to do my exercises, I thought "I have no excuses." It's a lie I tell myself when I say I don't have time to exercises because the truth of the matter is, I waste so much time doing nothing, that this argument no longer holds up at the end of the day. I have all the excuses in the world and I need to rid my brain of all of them. So everyday when I wake up, I hold myself accountable. I'm reminded of what Bob Greene tells Oprah every new year, "Exercise is non-negotiable."

I've Found the One

I've found the one!

I've been on a quest to lose weight since May of 2007. I came home from college with five extra pounds and added a "little" bit more since. I remember thinking that five pounds was a tragedy, and now I find myself wishing for those days. The last year and a half has been very stressful and as an emotional eater, the more agitated my mind was, the more my waist expanded. After gaining weight, weight that I successfully lost and kept off for three years, "rock bottom" seemed to be the only place my heart and mind were in. I became a recluse and found myself too ashamed to be seen in public. This made things worse, not better, because the more I isolated myself the more weight I gained.When life changes from pretty great to bleak in a matter of months, it's very hard to pull yourself up. I succeeded after getting help in the form of my school psychologist. I realized through therapy that my mantra needed to change. My current one at the time: "What's the point of trying? I'm going to fail anyway." Anytime I set out to succeed I always seemed to fall back on the debilitating words, "what's the point?" I was sick of my weight gain, and more than anything, I missed my jeans. I had really cute jeans that I had to put away because they were too small. Instead of thinking of solutions, I criticized myself constantly. I kept myself from doing the things that I used to do, and let my weight control my happiness. For those who are thinking of losing weight, I would suggest that they have fun. If I had simply lived life instead of waiting for the day that I lost weight, I probably would not have been as depressed, and I probably would not have gained as much. After getting myself out of my mental rut, all that was left was doing something! There is nothing cheaper than talk. This time, there was another obstacle. I tried several diets during the summer and they all ended badly. This set me back a few steps because I felt terrified. Nothing was working. I felt overwhelmed, like weight loss was not possible especially since I have so much to lose. But a week ago I found the perfect diet. It's something that allows me to live life how I've normally lived it. It's all about portion control. I've now come to accept that it will take me a while to lose weight and I'm in no rush. I'm finally in the right state of mind.

Tips: Pick a diet that is the most convenient for you. If you need a strict program, pick a diet that monitors every single calorie. If you want the least amount of work, try a diet with pre-packaged foods. If you need flexibility, pick a program that guides you with portion control. It's all about finding what works for you and the most popular diet may not be it. It will take a while to find the right one, but consider how much you're willing to spend, and how much you're willing to do. Keep in mind that extreme diets produce results very fast, but are very hard to maintain. Whatever you pick, make sure that it is something you can do from now on. My mistake was thinking that losing weight meant that my work was done. Once you lose the weight, the next goal is to keep it off indefinitely. Good luck!