Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Excuses and opportunities

I’ve been thinking a lot about one subject of late. Excuses…..so here we go with another post about excuses.

Last night I was at zumba. We were doing some move across the floor and my ankle flipped and I stumbled. The pain was immediate. I lifted my foot and started rotating it to stretch it out and see what was up. The pain was sharp for a few minutes then abated. Now let me tell you, this is not a rare occurrence. My ankles do this somewhat regularly. Todd is used to it….happens when we go out walking and hiking…happens in zumba…it just happens. Last night I sucked in my breath with pain and waited for a few minutes for the pain to subside. It did finally drop to a dull roar and I recommenced with the exercise. It still pricked painfully for a song or two…but overall it was ok. As I moved on the foot that was a little achy I started to think about it. For years upon years I used this phenomenon as an excuse as to why I couldn’t exercise. Last night I wasn’t going to be swayed. If the pain was intense I would have stopped. If the pain wouldn’t have eased up I would have stopped. I’m not in this to injure myself. However, I can’t abide by the excuses anymore!

I have eradicated excuses from my vocabulary in the last few months. I’ve pushed through sickness. I’ve pushed through bad weather. I’ve pushed through all sorts of obstacles. There is nothing going to stop me right now.

Consequentially, I’m kind of getting really sick of hearing everyone else’s excuses. Suck it up buttercup. Seriously, the excuses as to why you can’t do something is getting OLD! I don’t care if your leg fell off….get up and run! (Oh hell, I sound like Jillian Michaels now) I’m not saying that there are never any valid excuses. Quite the contrary, I think there does come along a valid excuse on occasion. I think that the true valid excuses are rare and far between. We give up and use anything we can come up with as an excuse.

We don’t run because we are uncomfortable. We don’t go to an exercise class because we have the sniffles. We skip going to the gym because we are tired and don’t want to get out of bed. I’m sorry….exercise IS uncomfortable. EVERYONE gets sniffles….if you still go to work you are ok to workout. As for being tired….the gym and a good round of exercise is energizing….I’ve had a good workout eradicate a headache too! Excuses no longer hold a power over me.

So last night my friend Paula and I met up with a personal trainer. He’s just starting out. He had been looking for some people that would be willing to be trained by him…for free. In return we will give him feedback about his techniques. We will also submit to before and after pictures that he can use as he builds his business. (success stories…lol). I was somewhat skeptical when I agreed to it. I have my routines and I don’t want to mess it up. I made my commitment to run and that is important to me. I also really enjoy my zumba social hours and don’t want to totally throw them under the sacrificial bus. I also know that I’m a bit of a picky eater. Come on now, I eat very limited meats (only chicken or turkey maybe 2-3 times a week). I’m not a fan of milk….or yogurt. Mushrooms are nasty and eggs are ok, if they are in a cake, but plain…..blech! So it had to be someone that understood that and was willing to work within that. It also had to be someone that understood that food IS and always will be a part of my life. Telling me to give up pizza is not a valid way to change my lifestyle. Allowing me to learn how to manage it is the route that I want to go. Deprivation is not the way to go.

So we met. He is quite nice to look at…so I was impressed at the first moment. Ha ha When he found out about zumba and my running he made it very clear that he wanted those things to continue. In fact he is training to run a 10k and since Paula also is starting to run, he talked about the three of us doing a 5k together. So that was one hurdle crossed. He didn’t seem too phased by my eating preferences. Just kind of chuckled when I would say ‘eww’ at some suggestion. Each time he immediately rattled off some alternatives and seemed comfortable with my eating preferences. Ok, so there is another hurdle crossed. . Ha ha ha As for understanding that there WILL be food that while I could give up, I just don’t want to. He started to laugh. His words were “this is life, you have to live and have fun” and then he went on to talk about his addiction…..Oreo cookies…and proceeded to validate his words by showing us his kitchen cabinet with a few packages of Oreos in waiting. I laughed and said Pizza is one of my non-negotiables. He immediately asked if I’d had a certain restaurants pizza and seriously looked at me and said “you have to try it!” So he understands that this is life and not a quest for eating the most perfect and healthy foods 100% of the time. I felt quite comfortable with it. And of course did I mention that he’s quite easy on the eyes????? He is realistic in his plans for how long it will take us to lose the weight and seems like he is it in for the long haul with us (remember before and after pics to help build his portfolio).


So unless for some reason he rescinds his offer or fizzles out on his plans, I’m in. I talked to Todd about it when I got home. I told him the highlights of the evening. I then asked him what he thought. Right now I’m already committed to a few nights a week of zumba and of course I disappear a couple times a week to go running. Committing to working out with a trainer and working with a trainer on other weight loss aspects will take even more time, especially going up to mert him to workout...30 minutes each way fir me to get to town and my gym. My husband looked at me and said, You are going to have a personal trainer for a few months where you work out with him a few times a week and he is going to also help advise on diet and exercise and be there for you via text/email/fb the rest of the week….and you are asking me if it’s ok. He reminded me what this ‘deal’ would cost me were I paying for this. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity (well I could pay…but being free is a once in a lifetime). He said that he would help me work around the scheduling stuff. So I’m on board. We shall see how this goes.

6 comments:

Eesh said...

"I have eradicated excuses from my vocabulary in the last few months. I’ve pushed through sickness. I’ve pushed through bad weather. I’ve pushed through all sorts of obstacles. There is nothing going to stop me right now." <<< I LOVE THAT!

It's cool that you met a personal trainer willing to train you for free even if it's to build his port. It's awesome on everyone's part.

xo

Anonymous said...

That is so awesome you are getting a trainer for free. I hope this works out for you. There are also foods I am not willing to give up. And I have been one of those that make excuses. Thank you for reminding me that my excuses are not valid.

Stained Glass Butterfly said...

I have been an expert at coming up with excuses, and I have nothing to show for it but more pounds to lose! So I am right there with you at eradicating excuses from my vocabulary.

Have fun with your trainer!

timothy said...

that is AWESOME! and you're so right about the excuses (and reasons are excuses with a bow!)

Unknown said...

I hope you have a great experience with your trainer (for free). I've always eaten up to 20% of my calories on fun foods. So I'm sure that I couldn't handle giving up my favorites forever too. But most days, I'm quite strict.

:-) Marion

Vickie said...

If you are turning your ankles on a semi regular basis, I suspect ankle strengthening exercises would be really smart. I think you can probably goggle and find sets of exercises listed. I strongly encourage you to find a good set of 10-12 and do them very regularly. You may be able to do them at work if you still have a lot of downtime at the end of the day.