Tag Archive for: Starting Over

I remember when I tried to quit smoking for the first time. I decided that on top of that, I was going to start eating better and exercising at the same time. Anyone who has ever tried to do too much at once will tell you that this was a bad strategy. So when I decided to start this journey to a healthier lifestyle, I told myself I would take it one step at a time. I started with running and have since added in working out at the gym a couple times a week. I’m not going to lie, it has been tough each and every time but I always manage to come out of it feeling good about myself.

I have also slowly started to change my diet but ran into a wall this past week after a particularly tough workout. I was sitting at my work desk, staring down at the bucket of vegetables I had brought for dinner and panicked a bit at the thought of cutting out the foods I had grown to love, such as pizza, wings and ice cream. In true Chris fashion, I decided to take the long weekend off from doing anything healthy and basically pigged out the whole time. A funny thing happened this time though. Before I had the chance to feel sorry for myself for failing, yet again, my brain picked me up, dusted me off and got my butt back in to the gym. It was probably the most gratifying thing that happened yet and showed me that I may have been trying to change too much, too quickly.

There have been other close calls so far and each time I have managed to push through them and carry on. I forgot my running shoes one day, something that would have derailed me in the past, but I decided to wear my flip flops to lift weights that day instead. Sure I looked silly but I got the workout in and felt great afterward. It’s so easy to rationalize reasons to quit and up to this point in my life, I was the king of doing this. Not anymore! Just this past week, I managed to shave 3 minutes off my 5K and am now consistently running it in under 35 minutes. I have never pushed myself harder and even though it really, really, really sucks while it is happening, there is no better feeling than knowing that I succeeded in reaching a new goal.

I have started taking notes about how I feel during the workouts and beyond, with the goal of sharing a very real account of the ups and downs of trying to turn things around. One thing that is clear to me, is that this isn’t going to be easy. No pain, no gain… Right???