When I lost the first 10lbs., nobody seemed to notice I lost weight, but when I finally lost 20lbs., people around me started noticing it. One time, when I updated a Facebook profile picture, our next door neighbor called on me and asked me a few questions. First question was, "How did you do it?" When I answered, "I walked every morning for more than an hour, did two Hip Hop Abs routines during weekdays, portioned my food intake." As soon as I was done answering her first question, she quickly made a follow up question, "Everyday?" Then her face turned sour. She said, "I guess I'd just have be overweight my whole life, I can't do what you're doing everyday."
This is the sad truth: many people want to lose weight, but don't want to devote time to it.
I was once like that, I admit. The thought of going through a video workout for 30 minutes felt I have been robbed of precious time I could use for other things, which turned out to be senseless (like playing a Facebook game or watching a YouTube video or "gossiping" through my Facebook Wall). When I finally got serious to lose the excess weight, I knew I will be sacrificing a lot, but it was a challenge I embraced. At first it was tough - breaking my usual cycle just to do my Hip Hop Abs routines, but I still did it... first 10 minutes sure were agonizing - I felt lazy, I wanted to turn the DVD off and just watch TV, but as I continue doing it time just went by so quick I was just surprised to see I was already done. After doing the routine, I always thank myself for not giving up and for making the day count. Now, I am applying the same principle. Think about it - we always put off for tomorrow when we can most certainly do it now. 30 minutes is just half an hour. You might miss your favorite TV show, you might not be able to harvest your crops on Farmville (if you still play it), but you will survive. And someday, you will just see the results.
Me? It took three months. 24lbs... and the rewards started pouring in.
Believe me, the day I fit into one of my sister's blouses, it felt like heaven. When I folded the clothes I needed to let go, I came into a realization - that it only took me 24lbs to start reaping the rewards... why didn't I do it then? True, three months may seem too long for most of us. All of us sure want to lose as much weight as fast as possible, and looking back, I realized three months went by so quickly!
Today Dr. Beck teaches us to create time and energy.
Like every goal we set ourselves to do, we have to put our time, effort, and energy for us to reach it. It is also true that all of us live a very busy life. I guess in a way I am lucky that I work at home and that I am still single (meaning: not yet married), but there are days I feel my day's work and house chores are eating my entire day. All of us have reasons to not fulfill our tasks for the day, but Dr. Beck says we just have to compromise:
- Set your priorities.
- Plan your meals ahead - maybe before you sleep, plan what food to cook for the next day, so you will not waste time walking around the market thinking what to buy.
- If you got kids who are old enough to help, you can ask them to do some chores so you will have extra time doing something for your fitness.
- Lessen TV / Internet time; lessen the time spent on other activities that are not that important.
- Multi task - if you're doing the laundry, you can insert some fitness activity while the machine washes / spin dry your clothes.
- Make fitness time one of your essential activities for the day.
Some of us don't like to plan. True, life is about being spontaneous, but then again if we must lose weight, we have to give up a little spontaneity, until we have developed a routine.
For this lesson, my biggest inspiration is my friend Rhona. She's not fat, but she looked a little chubby for her height. Now... she's a high school teacher and has to travel two hours just to get to the school from her place and another two hours (possibly more when the traffic is bad) to get home. She's at school the entire day, and coming home she needs to write on her Lesson Plan book, as well as check papers, which includes reading a lot of essays. On top of that, she is a daughter and a fiancee. She certainly has a lot of things going on that eats up her entire day, yet the day she got engaged, she enrolled herself in a gym and was able to devote a piece of her time everyday to do some workouts. I don't know how long she spends at the gym, but regardless of what and how she did it, the results speak for itself: she certainly looked stunning during her wedding day.
If she can do it, we all can do it.
I guess it's just a matter of commitment.
Easier said than done, but let's just do it anyway.
After all, it is for our own good. All to gain, nothing to lose.
...but excess pounds.
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