It’s December 1, which means that I’ve officially succeeded in posting every day for the month of November, making me a NoBloPoMo winner! Of course I don’t think there are actually winners and losers for that particular challenge, but since I missed my 50,000 word goal for NaNoWriMo by a long-shot, I’ll take what I can get.
I’m actually pretty tickled that it’s December, and I still feel like I have plenty to write about. Rather than feel drained, I feel energized. I’ve gotten into a daily blogging habit, and I’m feeling the need to keep on going. Yay me. Too bad I’ve had so much trouble establishing other good habits.
I always seem to take one step forward then two steps back. At least as far as my health and fitness go. I want to lose weight. I want to move more. I want to get off my medication. But apparently I don’t want it badly enough.
Oh sure, I’ve been walking more, and I really am enjoying it, but it’s not enough.
I’ve also been trying to include more fruits and vegetables into my diet, but that’s not enough either.
My situation calls for more drastic measures. Measures that I don’t feel like I have at my disposal at the moment, like strength and determination and willpower.
I’ve heard so many times that you just have to decide to do it, then make the changes. For some reason this approach is generally offered by men. Maybe we really are wired differently in this aspect? Or maybe we’re all individuals and we each have our quirks and hang-ups. For me, it’s my weight.
It seems that for each good choice I make, I make five poor ones. I’m working hard to balance that out a bit. I’m going to try to keep on moving. 
Today I tracked my steps with my phone (which means not all of them since I don’t carry it around all day), and I had more than I’ve had in the past week. The walk before work got me off to a good start. I have to thank my son and my dog for allowing me to join them.
If I can sit down and conjure words every day, then sure I can lace up my sneakers and take a walk around the block. I may even just walk myself into a new good habit.
BulgingButtons 
December 1, 2014 at 9:00 pm
It’s hard stuff. Start by acknowledging that. We’re most likely to do what we usually do. Fact. But there are other things I’ve read and experienced myself, too. One is seeing the goal as CLOSE, not far. If it is close, you know you can do it. If it is far, it just seems too hard. Another is the self-talk while you are actually doing the behavior you’re trying to incorporate. Congratulating yourself WHILE you’re doing it, and reminding yourself that you can keep on to your goal (or even beyond your modest original goal) helps talk yourself into completion. So set modest, achievable goals and then congratulate yourself while you’re doing them. Goal for today? Walk with son and the dog. Achievable most days. YAY!
I surely sound like a know-it-all. I’ve done the dance, 2 steps forward and 1 back, or 2 back and 1 forward. Not so much with my physical health, but me and my mental health had a pretty good go-round a couple years ago. It was fucking hard work, pardon my french, to recover to my baseline. And like most everyone, I deal with the body stuff all the time, too. I’ve made some pretty good routines but it is way too easy to fall out of them. All it takes is a few days. So there also I have to set little goals and bargain with myself and WOOHOO tell myself how AWESOME it is that I spent some time on the floor stretching today. What a hero…
Anyway, this is all meant to say, in a very poor way, that I am pretty darn sure you can do all this hard stuff. I don’t know you, but you seem to know what you want. That seems pretty important as a starting point. You WANT. And you’re willing to DO to get what you want. There’s just a lot to do. It can get discouraging. Be your own hero. You can do it. I know you can. 🙂
December 1, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Thank you for your support and well thought out reply. I really appreciate that you took the time to share those strategies with me. I’m going to keep moving forward the best I can, and I will try to become my own best cheerleader.