Wednesday, January 12, 2011

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"

6 comments:

  1. Inertia sucks. I tend toward it, so for me, it's all about fighting that first minute. If I can move ONE MINUTE, I can keep moving. But the struggle is in actually entering that Mobile Minute thatstarts the momentum . (I liked physics, too.)

    All I can say is write a specific goal. This post was all vagueness...the inertia vagueness. Been there. Know that well.

    Write a very very specific goal about what you will do. Just one. Then report daily on yourself doing it..or not and why.

    Put your walking shoes/workout clothes out on the sofa/chair/desk where you usually sit, and put a note that: You can't sit until you do...X Y Z. Do not allow yourself to even take a sip of coffee in the AM unless you...march in place 2 minutes. Then you can have it. Don't let yourself sit unless you do...1 minute of roll downs and torso twists. Anything..just to get into the momentum.

    But set the goal(s). This is a post saturated with vagueness and what if and maybe and well, I guess I....start the momentum by starting to put the mind itself into acive and deliberate WILLINGness. :D

    I'm plateauing, so it's easy to get depressed. Instead I downloaded two motivating books and went around stark naked in front of mirrors all day to motivate myself to wait out the fricken plateau and get back to making headway.

    As long as I have goals, i can check them off and know I AM making progress daily, if not on the scale again. I did X. I did Y. I did Z...I ate at X calories...and each oe is the daily achievement that lets me get through to the next day.

    So come one, let's see you add a post with concrete, willing, active MENTALILTY. :D

    Best to you, babe...kill the intertia...

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  2. Thank you for the kick in the butt. I needed that!!

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  3. I have read your every post for some months. YOu are part of my inertia. I hope that knowing your words are part of mine will help you as well.

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  4. Toots, post. UPDATE. Come on. Don't give up the blogging. It helps. It puts your mind a bit in the game. Maybe you're doing great and lost 10 pounds so far these last two weeks, or maybe you're doing badly, but whatever. POST. GET oN IT!!!! Kill the inertia...

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  5. Yes, please post- we are all waiting- you hook us with optimism, good stories and consistent posts then poof- you disappear- it ain't right! Get back to it. Come on! Please? Hollins.

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  6. Well, good luck to you- I think you will need it. H.

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