Get Shorty

I am feeling practical today.  That is to say, I won’t hit you with any deep existential thoughts or feelings.  At least not in the first sentence or so.  Let me weave a short tale of motivation…

“Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.”

Can you believe Confucius was to have said that, some 2500 years ago?  Seems pretty forward thinking for a time in history that didn’t quite have the advances in technology, communications, medicine, commerce or infrastructure that we have today.  Was it really possible that people were choosing jobs that weren’t fulfilling?  If that is true, then I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

Or do they?

For me, not so much.  I’m a caterpillar waiting to bust out!  Now…but it hasn’t always been that way.   I’ve worked since I was in high school (earlier even, but we’ll save that story for later) and up until my thirties education wasn’t important.  Graduated from high school, followed a girl….worked jobs I hated and thus my performance met with my enthusiasm and soon the whole charade came crashing down.

I moved back home and fell in love, but continued to work jobs I hated because the money was good and I was good at it (this is the short version of my story anyway).  But one job turned to another job, and thus into another job.  Seeing a pattern?  Me too.  I have worked many days in my life.  My father warned me of this. I’m sure he and Confucius went to school together.  Ha ha ha…ahem.  I kid because I love…

But it was true.  I worked for money and for no other reason, and I wasn’t satisfied and misery is a pretty tall mountain.  When you’re up there, you have a tendency to kick rocks downhill.  On the things you do love, and more importantly on the people you love.  Including yourself.

I gained over fifty pounds over a twenty five year period.  And I’m short, so fifty pounds is like strapping a Yugo to my waistline and trying to act normal.  It isn’t.  It wasn’t.  I had chosen to let my goals in life collect dust while I sat, unmotivated, and working jobs I hated because it was easy.  Achieving goals and chasing your dreams isn’t easy.  But it’s healthy…

No, the camera didn’t add 10lbs.

And we can all agree that being short and fat isn’t healthy.  And since I’d made a life altering change in my life at thirty by choosing to quit smoking, I could make a life altering change in my life at thirty eight to get in the best shape of my life.

Ok, so this won’t be a short tale of motivation.

I’ll digress for a moment.  Here goes…I smoked for fifteen years.  Ages fifteen to thirty.  No kidding.  I won’t stand on my soapbox about the dangers of smoking, but I will say I knew it was killing me.  So, without much fanfare I chose to quit.  In October.   My advice?  Skip the New Year’s Resolutions.  They don’t work.  They never did for me.  I tried quitting in January for years.  I wasn’t ready, and the pressure to fulfill a resolution is the wrong kind of motivation to do something.  You need to do it because you need to do it.  Forget what anyone else thinks, says or does.  Do for you, now!

Seriously.  I am a HUGE procrastinator and I can rationalize with the best of you.  But I was embarrassed for myself that I LET something like smoking control my life.  I LET it have that kind of power over me.  So I quit and didn’t tell anyone I had done so for a week.  After that first week, with nobody cheering me and doing it all alone, I knew I could do it and so it happened.  So when I decided to lose weight I used the same principle.  I quietly started changing my habits and my diet.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  Ahh…that man was a genius!  A snappy dresser, too…

Change starts with change.  And if you’re reading this (and I know only three of you are), then you have access to the internet which means you have access to all of the information you could possibly need to achieve your goal.  I did, anyway.  I’m now a healthy thirty five pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest.  I look great (so I’m told) and I feel AMAZING!  Here is what I did.

Lose the stigma of losing weight for someone else or to meet someone else’s expectations.   I did it for me.  And I don’t want negativity in my life, so I won’t have negativity in my life.  Each day I woke up and said to myself “I’m doing this!”  Not…”I’m going to do this.”  It is not a “going to” or a “try” mentality.  It is a “I’m already doing what I need to be doing.”

This change game is mental, folks.  Remember that.

Oh, and by the way…I’m not rock hard abs and totally buff chest and arms guy either.  Healthy weight doesn’t have to mean looking like that person in the magazine who works out for a living.  LOSE THE STIGMA!

Next, I learned about food.  Still am, actually.  And I love it.  I’m experiencing new things, new tastes, new dishes.  It’s great.  But I had to start simple, so I cut all alcohol out of my diet.  I was dropping weight without doing anything else but not drinking alcohol.  I’ve cut out unnecessary food as well, like fast food and sugars I don’t need (candies, donuts, sweetened drinks).  Now it’s a matter of eating the right foods at the right time.  Carbs, proteins, fats…I eat them all.  But not in the same sitting and not all day.  Portion control is important too, but let me tell you that I’m not hungry all time.  I will have seconds at dinner if I want it, knowing the food I’m putting into my system is going to get processed correctly.  For me, it was about getting educated so that I can make decisions that are right for me and my body.

It is important to exercise, too!  Walk, climb stairs, climb mountains, lift weights, do push-ups, yoga, do something…get your heart rate up and try to break a sweat at least four times a week for about 20-30 minutes.  Your body will thank you for it.  Oh…and you can sit there and mutter to yourself that you don’t have the time to do it but you’re wrong.  I know.  That’s what I did.  Seriously.  Like I was trying to convince others who had done it that I didn’t have enough time in my life to get fit, muttering to the computer screen.  In the time it took me to read their articles I could have done my exercise!  Your favorite show or game or barstool or whatever excuse isn’t going to help you get fit and be healthy.  I know…tough love!  But your body will thank you for it!

   October 2011

The people who’ve said that anything worth doing was not going to be easy were right.  It’s going to be an effort.  I dreaded that because I was lazy, lazy, lazy.  But I needed to take responsibility for myself because I realized that nobody should be taking responsibility for me…

So now that fear of change is lessened, but I won’t say it’s gone.  I still have the same fears anyone does.  I’m just not going to let them dictate my life.  I’m doing different things and expecting different results.  Like choosing a job that I love so I don’t have to work another day in my life.  I’ve stepped into the unknown and it’s scary, but it’s a change.  And change is good…

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