Day 108

I did my 15 minutes of exercise yesterday. I plan to do that again as soon as I finish this post. That will be three days in a row. That my not sound like much but for two weeks I struggled with my new habits and I don’t think I had three days total. I could certainly do more than 15 minutes but I’m restricting myself to that until it is something I want to do instead of just what I’m requiring of myself. I know that will come with time and consistency. It’s that way with any habit once established, it becomes a part of your life and you miss it if you can’t do it for some reason. In our thirties, we were active and we always ate nutritious food. We lost all desire for junk food, the first thing we always ordered from the menu was a salad and we chose a lean entree because that’s what we desired. It was the same with exercise. Even when we traveled, I’d get up early to fit in a workout. If it was a vacation, we looked for active things to do. That’s why I believe in the power of habit, I’ve seen first hand how it can transform your life. On another note, I saw an interview by Jay Leno of a young man who purposely made himself fat and out of shape. He was a personal trainer and he said he wanted to see life from his clients perspective. He gained 75 pounds in six months by eating the same processed foods most Americans eat every day and by becoming a couch potato. What struck me most was how difficult the simplest tasks had become for him. He said he got out of breath just tying his shoes. I can relate to that, it can be torture bending over but I’d been blaming it on getting older. This young man’s describing his life after gaining weight sounded like me, an older woman, describing mine. I suddenly thought, maybe it’s not all about aging? It gives me new incentive to work out and eat a healthy diet when I realize that it can change my life in a positive way the same way being over weight and out of shape’s negative effects restrict me. If I keep these new habits going another day, another week and until they are an essential part of my life, who knows how great I can feel and be in a year?! I might be that person I remember whom I’ve kept locked away for years.