The Mental Game

Someone said about exercise "Your mind quits before your body does."  What a powerful statement.  It is what I have to keep telling myself when I am carrying my extra 40 lbs over the trail that I run every other day.  I know my body can do it.  My body has done it every single time I have had the courage to go to the road and begin my run.  There is a little voice inside my head, and maybe in yours too, that tries to tell me not to try.  It says "the couch is so much softer, the nachos are salty and delicious."  My biggest struggle over the last 15 years has been with my own mind.  I have constantly set goals with weight loss and exercise and not achieved them, not because I can't, but because I am literally fighting with myself.  My attitude towards my own brain is ridiculous. When I tell MYSELF "you can't tell me what to do," or "I can so eat this crappy food, so there," its self-defeating on so many levels.  

So, now I know myself a little better.  So now I don't say to myself "You can't have that brownie" or "you can't sit and watch that show."  Instead, I say things like "your mind quits before your body does."  Then I am still in the same stubborn mind set...but I am saying things to myself that get me moving instead of the opposite.  I also do a lot of visualization.  After I am done with a run or a workout, I feel so powerful and so alive.  When I am thinking about ditching the workout for couch time, I just close my eyes and visualize how I feel when I am done, and it makes it much easier to go out and do it.

Another positive about all this exercise is how much better I am sleeping.  I have also given up drinking for the foreseeable future and not having alcohol in my system has also helped my sleep better.  Which means I have more energy during the day.

I FEEL AMAZING. If I feel this good now, with still 40 lbs to lose, I can't even imagine how I will feel when I hit my goal.