No Excuses

This is my mantra for the coming challenge...quit making excuses. I'm great at making excuses for why I'm not doing something. Certainly better at it than actually, oh, I dunno, actually following through with what I say I'm going to do. I've used them all at one time or another and it usually convinces me, for awhile.

Eating:
"I don't have time to eat as planned today, too many meetings"
"One donut isn't going to make any difference"
"There's nothing on this restaurant menu anyway"
"I'll just make this a free day"
"I can have double (or triple) portions because I skipped a couple of meals today"

Exercise:
"I'm too embarrassed of my body to go to a gym"
"My gym is full of stuck up yuppies and I feel out of place"
"I'll go to the gym tonight after work"
"I'm too tired and sleepy to exercise this morning"
"It's too rainy, snowy, dark, or whatever to drive to the gym"

Transformation:
"No one knows if I fudge the challenge"
"I'll make up for it next week"
"I either have to smoke or snack all the time"
"I'm not getting support from my friends"
"I can always start another challenge"

Pretty damn pathetic as I write those excuses out. There are lots more but these seem to be the primary ones I've used with myself time and time again. I'm not like this. Really. I have more character than this, more drive, more ambition, and more ability than to just sit on the sideline and whine about why I'm failing at something without even bothering to complete the task.

No more excuses.

None.

Before Photos

I have a considerable collection of before photos. Thanks to the convenience of digital cameras, I actually have a couple hundred of the horrid things floating around in my computer. I started looking through them this morning after hearing a fellow challenger, Brian , mention that he had loads of before pictures....each looking a bit worse than those earlier.

I'm kinda in the same boat. Part of the whole challenge is to take before and after photos of yourself. I mean, you can use all types of weight and measurement statistics to gauge a transformation but...let's face it....the proof is in the visual difference between the start and the end. As well, looking at an unflinching view of one's body is a hell of a motivator and wake up call about your physical condition.

Still; I have no after photos.

I seem to be documenting a transformation...but not in the direction I had intended.

Addictions

THE big obstacle to achieving a healthy lifestyle. If it was easy to give up destructive behaviors, few people would continue to abuse themselves day after day until they keel over from the results.

We all have our particular monkeys to face with varying degrees of success. In my youth, it was drugs....lotsa drugs, couldn't get enough, and it damn near destroyed me. I left that scene because I didn't like what drugs were doing to me. I didn't like the type of person I was as a drug user. I made a conscious decision to change my lifestyle and never looked back.

Easy?

Hardly....and not a quick change either, but a change it was and a change that nobody could do for me. I had to do it all myself. For myself.

I'm spending this year, once again, changing my life and, once again, I have an addiction that I must get rid of to reach that change.

Smoking.

Oh, I quit for awhile. Then started again, slowly at first, but gradually working up to almost the level I was before I stopped.

The dang thing is....I KNOW BETTER! I know what smoking does to the body. I know it is insane to keep putting poisons in my body every day and expecting good health to somehow magically fall into my lap. I know better. Alas, that is the nature of addiction.

I'm tired of being controlled by this addiction. I start a new challenge on June 2nd...one in which I am actually entering the contest. The real challenge for me starts today.

No more.