Inertia

Inertia, that's my problem. I try to deny it, I try to work around it, but the bottom line... and what caused the hugeness of my - er - bottom line... is that I'm about as motivated as a potato. Ironically, I'm shaped like a potato. Perhaps it is all a quirk of fate...

It is hard to overcome inertia. Seriously. There are no excuses or rationalizations at work here. In fact, there are all sorts of rules about energy and objects at rest versus objects in motion. Call me a geek, but I actually enjoyed physics. It was the physics instructor that I couldn't stand... Enough nostalgia! Inertia deals with the idea that objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and that objects in motion tend to remain in motion. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this... inactive people tend to stay inactive, and active people tend to stay active. That's why we're lumpy and they're buff.

 

In order to become active, a person has to get up off the couch or out of the chair and start moving. That transition requires a significant amount of physical energy. Active people seem to manage to get moving with very little fanfare. For some of us, the stagnant lumpy ones, the energy expenditure is like scaling a personal Mt. Everest. We would rather have our teeth pulled out than run around the neighborhood. We need incentives, constant streams of rewards, and the immediate gratification of noticeable results. But then, once we get going, we usually do okay. We get our walks or runs or biking done. We drag ourselves off to the gym. We keep going until we become complacent. You know what happens when we fail to be vigilant. We start to slow down. Workouts get more sporadic and then there's the inevitable roll to a stop.

  

All of us have been there. We've done that, and we've wished we could fit into the T-shirt. We know that it's easier to stay motivated than it is to get motivated in the first place. And yet, many of us allow ourselves to stop. Once we've stopped, we have to overcome inertia to get going again. That's what happens to me. Over and over, it happens to me. Sometimes it's hard to push myself to begin again. Sometimes, Highway 150 heads up a mountain. This is one of those hilly stretches. I suppose it's time to put the old buggy in 3rd gear and head up that next hill.

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Uber-irony... playing a word game today, instead of taking a walk, I missed the word "laziness"

New Year

Hi there everyone! I just got a kick in the behind, and it seems to have propelled me to the blogosphere. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgivings and Passovers and Christmases and Kwanzaas and whatever other holidays you celebrated. Is there anyone out there who did NOT overindulge? Just remember to own what you do and what you eat. If you ate too many cookies, like I did, I hope you enjoyed them! (I did!)


I am not one of those people who relishes the beginning of a new year. I tend not to see the opportunities that lie ahead, and I never make resolutions. Instead, I am more likely to reflect on the things I did or did not accomplish the previous year. When I took stock of 2010, I realized that it really was a year of change for me. I lost sixty pounds! That's huge. (pun intended) But I should have lost more. Why didn't I lose as much as I planned? Food. I like to eat, and I like to eat "bad food." The recent holidays brought a lot of baking and entertaining and food gifts into my life. I'm a sucker for holiday-themed goodies. There was too much temptation for me to resist. So, I gave in. Until a few days ago, I was AWOL.


After at least a month, I finally stepped on the scale again. (The battery died and I kept forgetting to get a new one.)  Yes, I gained. No, I didn't gain a lot. Yes, I have already lost three of the nine pounds I gained since Halloween. No, I'm not fretting about it. I used to gain and lose ten pounds all the time! Seriously, every pound was worth it... I'm a great baker, and the cookies were fantastic... not to mention the Belgian chocolates that kept turning up at work... But now the tree is away and the decorations are down, and I am spending a bit more time thinking about what goes into my mouth. I am also paying attention to the relationship between food/exercise and results on the scale. 


Interestingly enough, to me at least, is the fact that I WANT to get back to losing weight. I think I found my mojo! I think I figured out why I have found motivation again. When I lost what I will call the "first sixty," I was smaller than I'd been in a LONG time. Jeans fit again, work clothes fit, etc. Having spent the past few months relatively static in the weight department, I am now used to this weight. Instead of feeling skinny, I just feel ... fat. I never realized how happy I'd be to feel fat! Now I have a new starting point. I will lose weight from this point, not from the original starting point. My challenges and goals seem to be more manageable and less threatening this way. 150 is not nearly as far away as it was back in June.


Onward and downward! I plan to see that ticker start moving again soon. 


Happy New You.