My Quest to Lose Weight Without Surgery: #11

Last night's run was a great one. I started out with a slow and steady pace, but I was dying by the end of lap two. I pressed on through lap three, coaching myself and reminding myself that the pain would subside. It usually does. You have to really get warmed up before your body realizes what to do. Your body initially says, "What the heck is going on here? Who is this person?"

My health coach always says that your body does the same thing when you give it cakes, cookies etc after giving dieting a good go. He says your body says, "Hey! Brandy's back!" because you are giving yourself all the fattening stuff again and your body has come to love it.

I realized last night that my body does the same thing when I start exercising again after a brief hiatus. I think my body was glad I was back. I try to think of the initial discomforts as that part of me that really doesn't want me to exercise. The pain and achiness is that fat girl inside saying "No! I don't want to run! Feel how terrible it is?". If I can battle through that stupid fat girl in there and that challenge of bursting through the pain... I know I will succeed.

I think that many times we do give into the initial discomforts of exercise. What people need to realize is that if you will become your greatest coach, you can get through it. It takes approximately five minutes for your body to wake up and realize that you are exercising. Anything before that is basically a 'shock' to your system. After about five minutes, you should start feeling your muscles warming up. It's kinda like the 'grease' finally hits all the gears or something.

I have noticed that after the first five minutes or so (my first 2 laps on the track) I start feeling so much better. If you've ever read anything by Dr. Phil, you may have already heard of the term 'self-talk'. I think self-talk is crucial when you are trying to lose weight. You need to keep yourself in check, because at the end of the day, no one else really cares about your weight loss as much as you do. You have to learn to motivate yourself. Trust that you CAN lose that weight, you CAN keep exercising. Take it minute to minute if you have to. If you are running or walking, and you think you just can't keep it up - look up and find a landmark. Maybe it's the stop sign 10 more yards away. Tell yourself you'll just stop and walk or slow down once you reach the stop sign. Right before you reach the stop sign see if there is another marker you can push yourself to. Maybe there is a tree 10 feet past your stop sign, tell yourself to go just that much further before you stop. When you feel that you NEED to stop, do it. Always listen to your body, but remember that this IS mind over matter, and sometimes your body can trick you with those discomforts when you are starting to work out. Try to remember that you should EXPECT these things and that it is only your body adjusting to the workout. I hope everyone else is doing well with their workouts.