Happy New Year – I hope all’s well so far.
Just wanted to take a moment to tell you a little story about how it took me 21 days to get on the road to fitness.
Like you I made a New Years Resolution a few years ago – to get back into shape.
For me that meant quitting smoking (I used to happily smoke 1.5 – 2 packs a day) and dropping about 35 pounds of loose fat. So When New Years Day came I woke up after celebrating the night before and still had cigarettes on the counter, crappy food in the fridge and cupboards along with chips and various treats from the gathering the night before.
As a matter-of-fact I don’t even remember lighting that first smoke – but there it was when I suddenly remembered it was New Years! CRAP!
Keep in mind this was about my 10th year in a row I had made this same New Years Resolution – and failed within hours.
But earlier that year I had learned something important, I had learned that failure wasn’t a result of not succeeding first try – failure only occurs when you quit trying.
So I went through New Years Day doing a better job planning and organizing for my successful resolution. I smoked while I cleaned up the junk – ate junk while I made good foods for the week and made a list of why I should get healthy and tried to think of reasons why I shouldn’t.
I woke the next morning and things went better – until mid-afternoon when my cravings got the best of me and I went into a tizzy until I finally went to the store and bought another pack.
When I got home I sat down, lit up another smoke and called the Doc for a prescription for the strongest patch (this was before they were available over the counter). I also walked down to the “Y” and got a membership.
Next day I put on the patch, got to the gym and found I was so out of shape I couldn’t even do 5 minutes on the stepper. I had no idea what the equipment was for in the gym and while my heart was pounding out of my chest, my patch sweat right off my arm.
I bought more cigarettes on the way home.
Next day I went back to the gym and hired a trainer to show me around the gym and how to use the equipment. He put me on a program. I brought a spare patch with me.
but…
Then I went to dinner with friends and had a couple of drinks…
This went on for 20 days – each morning I would try again and make adjustments for where things went wrong.
On January 21 I finally became a non-smoker and began my journey into fitness.
All it took was the decision to commit to it until it finally stuck. And it will – I guarantee you.
Is it hard? Yes, sometimes it is.
But if you never quit – you will never fail.
All the best in 2012
Cynthia Carpenter
