Fall In Love

Commitment begins with yourself.

An Uncomfortable (but true) Equation

When a man is in love, he will swim the deepest ocean or climb the highest mountain to be with his beloved. When he isn’t, he suggests they meet at the restaurant. Object lesson observed: The level of commitment equals the level of effort deemed reasonable. When someone is not in love, here’s how he or she thinks: “What? Take you to the airport? Why - is something wrong with your car?” By contrast, here’s how they think when they’re in love: “It seems obvious and reasonable to take you to the airport, wait with you until your plane boards, and then wave goodbye until it disappears on the horizon.” Again: The level of commitment equals the level of effort deemed reasonable.

In the get-in-shape world, this translates to: “What? Get up at 5:15am to be at the gym by 6am so I can work out before work? I need my sleep!” Or – “What? Join an exercise group? Endure the group pressure, cram one more thing into my schedule?” These options seem unreasonable. The awful truth: The fault is not with the exercise options, dear ones; it’s in our low level of commitment to ourselves. Hmmm. You could try turning that around. You could make a loving commitment to yourself and then consider it completely reasonable to go out of your way for yourself. Exercise would be an obvious and reasonable priority. You’d think it easy to make good food in advance, store it in handy containers, making it as convenient to grab as a bowlful of cereal and a lot better for you. Go for it – declare your undying love for yourself and then go the extra mile for you! Consider grand gestures and great measures reasonable and easy. How can you love others as you love yourself, if you don’t love yourself first? Marry YOU.

And speaking of loving yourself…

Do you want to lose weight because you think you should? Or because you think you should think you should? Are you doing it for them? For him? For her? For the nameless mass of humanity out there that you imagine is giving you the evil eye every time you nervously tug your shirt down over your hips? Because you are dating again and therefore must look like someone too young to have been married before? What tape measure, scale, standard, trend or opinion are you measuring yourself against? Or, worst of all, are you wanting to lose weight because you are punishing yourself for a failed relationship, a less than approving parent, or ego-torpedoing bullies?

Really, let’s all stop and breathe. If you, personally – you yourself – want to change, I’m rummaging through memorabilia boxes for my pom-poms even as we speak. But what I don’t like is the pressure-cooker atmosphere of pressure-change. You can’t be your former young self any more than you can be your future older self. Middle-aged you, right now, is the only one you have to work with, work on, or work for. It may sound esoteric or silly, but if you love yourself forward, you’ll move forward. If you get behind yourself and push or berate yourself forward, you’ll resist. You are so good-looking that I, for one, can hardly stand it. I want to be like you when I grow up. Go, YOU!

And if you decide, of your own free will and choice, that you would like to change, next month I’ll share some ways to do it that are so sneaky and subtle they'll ‘psych you out’ and allow you to change gradually.

Winter Whites

Wintertime. A time when we tend to gravitate more towards “comfort food” and are less likely to reach for those fruits and vegetables. But getting your daily allowance of nutritional food during the long winter months may be easier than you think.

Nutritionists suggest that we eat fruits and vegetables that are pale in color during this time of year to ensure we are still getting the nutrition we need. The list of suggested food includes apples, pears, cauliflower, onions, white potatoes (without all the toppings) and garlic. During the winter these foods are not only reasonable in cost, but they are rich in nutrients!

#health