Now It's In Writing

I’m always so hesitant to commit out loud to something. Sometimes I feel safer secretly forming a plan in my mind and then that way if I fail miserably, I’m the only one who knows. But I know that’s silly. I know that often times the best way to reach a goal is to state it verbally, commit to it in front of others who can support you and to make it an acknowledged priority in your life. So that’s what I’m doing right now: I want to go three weeks with working out every single day. That’s it, just a small little exercise goal but big for me. As you probably all know by now, I am bad at exercise. My relationship with exercise could be described as sporadic at best. To do three weeks, that’s twenty-one days, of workouts is actually a huge commitment for me. Right now is the perfect time to do it. My summer school sessions are everyday and allow me to get home around 8:30 pm for the next three weeks. Already everyday this week I have exercised for at least thirty minutes immediately after arriving home. It helps me to know that there is a designated time penciled in for me to work out. Also, last semester I regularly arrived home around 10, which was effective at helping me not to spend the evening eating (I tend to be a late night eater so this is a constant battle). Now that I get home so much earlier I have the urge to graze in the kitchen. Exercising not only suppresses my appetite for a while but it also gives me something to do other than sitting in front of my fridge. Finally, at the completion of this three week mini-challenge is my birthday and it’s near my weigh-in day. It’ll be nice to see some results and feel better about my body on my birthday (I can tell myself “yes, I’m growing older but better!”) I do have a lot of things going on in my life like work, school, practicum and family but it doesn’t mean that I can’t take at least a half an hour out of my day to do something nice for my body. I mean come on, I wouldn’t skip brushing my teeth just because things got a little hectic so why is exercising the first thing I scrap on my to do list whenever things get a little busy for me? I think it will feel really good to be able to celebrate a mini-goal like this and to prove to myself that I’m worth the daily effort.