Getting Fit Fridays {vol. 9 & 10}–My get up and go…

…has gotten up and went.

I know y’all have heard that saying.

It describes where I am, though I guess my get up and go hasn’t entirely gotten up and went. It is just harder to make myself do the things I know I need to do—mostly on the food front. I suppose you could say I am in a bit of a slump.

And before you say, “Hey, it isn’t Friday!” Just let the fact that there was no post last Friday and that this Friday’s post is occurring on Saturday clue you in to the chaos that has been my life the last two weeks and cut a sister a break.

Life has intervened. Prom committee meetings, Military Ball, Eye doctor appointments, Homeschool Co-op prep, Homeschooling, Extra-curriculars, Family visits, Etc. Life events thrown my way which upset my apple cart. This is something I have written about before and am aware is a struggle for me—to stay on track when I start feeling overwhelmed. It is that time of year when things start to go nuts.

Planning becomes difficult. Routines are changed. I feel so exhausted. But if I am truly honest, and I want to be, this whole thing is just hard. And like my friend Cris, when my perfectionism kicks in, I tend to shut down.

Yesterday, as I was driving to the gym for my WERQ class (that I really do enjoy), I was praying, “Lord, I am so tired. Why is this thing so hard?”

I heard that still, small voice say, “Because you want it to be easy.”

Oh really. *insert raised eyebrow here*

Truer words may never have been spoken.

Making good choices in my eating is hard. It takes time and planning. I want to eat what I want to eat. I want it to be quick and easy.

Getting fit takes time. I want it to happen now. I want it to be easy.

Results take hard, consistent work. I don’t like to work hard. I want to give minimum effort and get maximum results.

TRUTH: I am, by nature, a lazy person. I would like things to just happen. I want broccoli and lean proteins to miraculously appear on my plate at dinner time. I want cake to taste terrible so I won’t love it. I want my hips and thighs, okay, my whole body, to be about 6 times smaller than it currently is.

Oh, but wait…didn’t someone once say that nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work? Yep, his name was Booker T. Washington. And didn’t someone else say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result? Uh-huh, his name was Albert Einstein. Someone else said that in all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. Yeah, that guy was King Solomon, only, like, the wisest king in Israel’s history. Oh, and he also said, the soul of a sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

SO, while my nature is to be lazy and to want it NOW (think Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka singing “♫…don’t care how, I want it nooooow…♪”), I know that I have to keep on making even the smallest steps in the right direction and just say no to my natural inclination to throw the baby out with the bath water when I feel like I have really messed things up. I have to fight my urge to give up and give in to what I want at the moment.

Progress is slow. And though I have moments when I feel like I want to quit and I am tired and frustrated and I want to eat junk and I feel like there are a thousand other things I “need” to be doing besides working out, I know that slow progress is still progress.

The coming week is just as crazy as the last two. So, what am I going to do? I am going to write down what I eat. All the bites, tastes and licks too! I am going to continue with my workouts and give them more than I have been giving. I am going to ask for help when and where I need it. That may be the hardest thing of all for me. I don’t like to ask for help.

Most of all, I will not give up.

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted” ~David Bly

***********************************************************************

Getting Fit Fridays appears weekly here at Red Van Ramblings to chronicle my fitness journey and more importantly, to increase my accountability. Do you need to get back on the wagon? Do you need some help and encouragement? Join with me, if you’d like. We can do it—together.

Getting Fit Fridays {vol. 4}–Mouth Breathers Unite!

This week has been tough. I mean, it is hard to really get out there and give all you’ve got to the Couch to 5K when you can’t breathe through your nose. You know, that whole “breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth” business.

It’s true. This week I have been battling the creeping crud. It hasn’t knocked me completely out, but it has been totally annoying. And inconvenient.

But isn’t there always an easy excuse to find to avoid the workout or to just grab something quick to eat?

Y’all nod your heads. You know it’s true.

Monday I did nothing. Tuesday I manned up, choked down some Day*Quil and went to workout at the park with my girls. Wednesday—nothing. Thursday it was pretty much monsoon-ing here. But thanks to my girl, Cris, who is so awesome and inspiring (and, thanks also, to some more Day*Quil), we met up with some of our other girls and did a Biggest Loser workout video in our friend’s garage. This morning, the skies are clear, but my head is not.

Where does all this mucous come from, y’all?? Good gracious, I have never seen so much! My plan is to choke down some more meds and get out there and do my run today! Even if I have to be a mouth breather—I’ll give it my best.

And then there is the issue of appetite—I just don’t really feel like eating anything much. And I sure haven’t felt like standing at the stove. So, surely I’ve eaten less this week, but it has not always been the best of choices. Thus, my family has not gotten the best choices either. And then I’ve just felt too tired to really be diligent about my food journal. Sigh.

Just being honest here.

This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road.

Pushing through. Pressing on.

When you are feeling sick-y. When life gets crazy. When you feel like you don’t have time for a workout or to prepare something healthier to eat. When some roadblock appears.

I must refuse to be derailed! Or at the very least, get back on the rail ASAP when I see life getting kay-ray-zay.

I am realistic. I know that Life Happens. And I know there are times when my body is telling me I need to rest, and I do. I know there will be days when working out doesn’t happen. Or when I make less than stellar food choices.

But I refuse to make excuses. I refuse to just give up and quit. I can’t. Not this time. I’ve started and stopped too many times before.

Let’s face it, I only have this one body (and it ain’t getting any younger, y’all!). I have a responsibility to get healthy. I owe it to my family—to be here for them, to be an example to my daughter. I owe it to myself, because I am worth taking care of and feeling better physically, emotionally and spiritually. Most of all, I owe it to God. He is the One who created me, after all.

So, what do you do to stay on track when you feel like life is going nuts?

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. ” – Earl Nightingale

How do you fight that post-holiday funk?

Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops…

Wait, what do you mean, “where she stops?”

She never stops!!

The merry-go-round of life never stops. And though it seems totally insane at times, that is how life is.

Photo credit: bbbridget74

And such is the story of my life the last few weeks.

It has been filled with the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season and all that brings. We were blessed to have a wonderful time with family and friends. It really was a special time.

And then, it was over.

For me, there is always this thing I call “post-holiday funk”. Are you familiar with this? After all the awesomeness of the holidays and the family time and the delicious food, I come home and see the remnants of our Christmas. And I dread the de-Christmas-ing and the going back to school and the routine. And I miss my family already. And I am feeling behind before the new year even begins.

And I am running to get back on that merry-go-round, that has already started moving without me on it, by the way.

It is, in a word, depressing.

Are you following me so far?

I struggle with getting back in the groove. I know I am not the only one. And then I feel overwhelmed, like the world is spinning out of control, and then BOOM! I am paralyzed.

So, I take my moment, I feel sorry for myself, sigh deeply, whisper a prayer, and then, put on my big girl panties and move on. I mean, what else are you gonna do, right?

Then, I start trying to catch up. We un-decorate the tree. Haul it out to the backyard. The boys bring in the Christmas bins. I gingerly wrap each ornament and pack it away. Then I try to figure out how to get all the rest of the stuff back in the rest of the bins…I mean, it all came out of there, right? It must fit back in. Somehow. We locate the backpacks, lunchboxes and lesson plans that were all joyously tossed aside a couple of weeks ago.

And then it all starts back with a vengeance: school, show choir rehearsals, homeschool co-op, homework, et cetera….

And don’t get me started on the 18th birthday that is coming next month and the graduation that is happening in May! Yikes! I am not ready! That is another whole post and a whole different kind of funk, right there.

But I digress.

So, how do I fight the post-holiday funk?

This is the time I have to really make myself press in. I find myself on my knees more and reaching out to my girlfriends more and making myself go ahead and do those things I really don’t want to do. It keeps me from losing my sanity. It keeps me headed in a positive direction—keeping my eyes on what is important: faith, family, friends, loving others. It helps me fight against the procrastinator in me—and I have to fight that tooth and nail, I tell you!

Some days I am more successful than others.

“I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” ~Philippians 3:13-14 The Message

So, join with me, y’all! Let’s fight the post-holiday funk and the procrastinator inside of us and face this new year head on! Looking onward and upward.

I know I can’t do it alone!

How do YOU fight the post-holiday funk?