Starting an Exercise Routine?

Don't make it too difficult.

I heard her calling out to her fellow employees in an absolutely tortured voice, dripping with desperation, “How many calories in a Tic-Tac?” She had decided the way to va-voomness was to count calories, you see. Nothing wrong with that – in fact it’s a very concise way to lose weight. However, everything she consumed, including a stick of chewing gum, had to go on her calorie-counting list. All day. All evening. She was slumped across her desk, her head resting on a piece of paper with one long, skinny column of single digit and two-digit numbers. A pen was held limply in her hand. The single Tic-Tac was duly noted. (Two calories. I knew you’d want to know.)

The next day she gave up and treated herself to a large stack of french fries – comfort food after her trial by calorie. She didn’t ask what a single french fry calorie count was and multiply that by the heap on her plate, nor did she add the ketchup count. You see, when keeping track, the exquisitely painful process includes everything that you consume except water. When you let go, you let go completely and let the chips (and fries) fall where they may.

Making something too difficult to do works perfectly if you basically don’t want to do it. It seems so noble, but it’s sabotage dressed in silk. We can do the same with exercise, of course. We can go overboard on workouts, beginning our very first session with a full half-hour of heart-pounding, sweat-drenched action (with spurts) on the treadmill, followed by three full sets of 12 reps of free weights that leave us trembling and shaky and prohibitively sore for several days. We can punish, almost torture, ourselves and then, of course, give up. I do assure you, push me too far, too fast, too long and too-inclined on a treadmill, and I will tell you anything you want to know. So let’s not do this. There is another way, and I call it the One Thing approach.

One Thing

Remember the movie called “City Slickers” where a crusty old cowpoke says the secret to life is one thing – and you just need to discover what that one thing is for you? I think the same thing holds true for changing your body.

If you start your body renovation by stripping your diet of salt, fat, and sugar, while asserting portion control and exercising at least five times a week with both cardio and weights – possibly working in faithful attendance at yoga, or kick-boxing, or Pilates (and of course down eight glasses of water daily), I can just about promise you will stumble and end up thinking you have no willpower as you come up for air from your consoling bowl of Haagen Dazs.

You know what works in my experience? Doing just one thing and experiencing the joy of results. How can you know what’s really working if you do everything at once?

I was such a mess at one time that taking a walk was a big step. I dragged along, everything jiggling under my nobody-will-know oversized dress. Then I found that I wasn’t dragging, I was walking. I felt more energetic. I didn’t get out of breath. Do you know how fantastic that was? VERY! It made me want to add one more thing, like a few not-so-deep knee bends and see if my legs felt stronger. I did, and they did! Then I wanted to start jogging and found to my horror that I could only jog for SIX STEPS before my heart was thudding and my chest was heaving. That appalled me, so I determined to jog for six steps until I could jog for ten. Do you know I worked up to over a mile? I would jog until I couldn’t, then walk, over and over. Eventually I noticed I was jogging and simply didn’t feel a need to slow to a walk. With joy never before experienced, I found I could just keep going!

Would you like to feel successful and strong and empowered to progress? Try doing just One Thing. See if you like the way you feel about yourself!

Looking to Refuel in the Afternoon?

Afternoon "Reboot" Trail Mix

2 cups cocoa roasted almonds

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup raisins

1 cup pistachio kernels

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup cashews

Place almonds and cinnamon in large bowl; toss well to coat. Add remaining ingredients and toss. Store in an airtight container.

#health