Fits and Starts

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."

-Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet

So far there's one thing I'm sure of when it comes to goal setting and completion and that is the phenomenon called 'Fits and Starts'. Sunday, February 27th was supposed to be my first day of 'pre' base training. I knew it was coming up well in advance and I had it written on my calendars...all three of them! And yet, I woke Sunday morning simply not feeling like doing a thing. This wasn't just a bout of laziness or indifference. It was my first battle in the war of acheivements; my first 'fit'. 

I've been reading a weight loss memoir called "Half-Assed" by Jeanette Fulda. She's been my comedic relief from this sometimes overbearing thing we call LIFE. One of the things she mentioned in her book this morning is how she has looked back at her blog archives and realized that her journey was made up of many 'battles' in an all out war on obesity. Some battles were won and some were lost...badly. But the greatest victories exsisted because she kept going. She noticed that she had forgotten what it felt like to feel bad about herself and her apparent iniquities, and while she skimmed over her early entries her eyes were opened to how far she'd actually come.

This gives me hope.

Earlier this week I had been frustrated because I thought, "Man, if I poop out on the very first day of this thing...what does that mean for the rest of my training?" Sunday was just a tiny 1 mile long battle among other daily battles. I remember as a youngster being told to "choose your battles" ...so I chose to stay home and pout.

Thankfully, Wednesday rolled around and Melissa and Tara were relying on me to put them through a hellish exercise routine at the gym. If I retained anything from my previous weight loss experience, it's the ability to know how to kick my own butt...and bring others along with me! I got my scheduled amount of mileage in that day too and it felt awesome...my first 'start'. This is one of the million reasons why buddies along the way will prove to be very helpful.

Thursday afternoon found me scrambling from work to make it to my 6:30 meeting with Mel and Tara at the Y. They've begun to profess undying hate for me during these workouts...I wouldn't want to let them down, now would I? The only 'problem' I had was, I couldn't complete my mileage in the amount of time I had while getting all the other strength and stretching routines in. Luckily, Thursday nights will no longer exsist past St. Paddy's day since we will be hosting a community group out of our home those nights. This means I'll have to get the mileage in BEFORE work...good thing the good ol' Dr. decided to start at 9am on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of 8am. I get a whole extra hour to get my workout in before the day begins.

I'm one blessed duck!

Now if I could only get the warm season to cooperate and get here. I need extra motivation getting out of bed in the mornings and the cold doesn't help at all!