This Weight Loss Resolution Has NOTHING To Do With The New Year.

It’s just about DAD.GUM time. I mean, really?? How far am I going to let myself get before I decide to do something about it? And why wait until then – why not do something now.

My husband approached me before the holidays with this challenge, “I want you to challenge yourself to start exercising in the new year, and I want you to commit to 30 days, and I want you to blog about it, every day.” Of course the conversation was full of “Sure – why don’t YOU exercise with me?” and “Gee THANKS hun,” and “did you just say you want me to blog every day??” Now don’t get me wrong, he was actually being very loving about it, he’s getting concerned about what I have been ignoring for the last year — how dangerously close I’ve been creeping up to a certain number that I even dread to type here. A number that for some reason sounds a LOT worse than ten less that I weigh now, because it marks a “turning point.” It’s definitely the “YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR” sign. His thinking is that if I commit to it for 30 days, by the end of the 30 days I’ll be in better shape and better able to keep exercising… if I can just make it to that point and not quit before then.

It makes sense.

But still I hemmed and hawed about this and that. I tried to challenge him to exercise with me and see who could lose the most weight at the end of the month, for motivation to keep me going. But he got frustrated with me because I was missing the point. When I brought it back up a few days later, while traveling in the car where neither one of could run away… he got frustrated with me again. Finally he said the wisest thing. (SEE – it’s true! God uses our husbands to get things through to us.) He said:

“It’s like quitting smoking or anything other habit. You have to do it for you, because YOU want to. Not because I asked you to. You can’t do it with a group or a partner because if they quit then you’ll want to quit too. You need to do this for yourself. I want you to blog about it every day to keep you accountable. If you inspire others to exercise, too, that’s fine, but don’t do it for them, don’t do it for the blogging, do it for you.”

Wise, wise man that hubby of mine.

I spent allllll of 2009 knowing that it was time to get off my kiester and starting exercising. I’d say, “well I know that I need to, I haven’t found the want to.” There was a moment, a brief, brief moment in July when I did want to. I bought The 30 Day Shred and did a few days of that, missed a couple days, did one more day to get back on that horse.. and then I broke my big toe and I spent the next three months recovering. The first few weeks I spent very little time on my feet and of course I gained weight – ten pounds! Once I was able to get around again, I got on the gazelle glider a few times, but it didn’t stick. The “want to” had disappeared again and I had to spend a few more months finding it.

I finally found the “want to” last month, when I misplaced my only pair of long jeans that fit. I was convinced that this other pair of jeans in the closet was the right pair except they wouldn’t button! Not even close! Not even close by three inches! I didn’t see how in the world a pair of jeans that I’d worn three weeks earlier could suddenly not fit by that much. With the onset of cold weather and without any long jeans to speak of (capris only) I had to make an “emergency” trip to Walmart the next day to buy jeans that fit. I was relieved to pick out a pair of jeans in the same size as before and hold them up to me and see that they’d fit. But I really didn’t like holding the jeans up and looking at them, really looking at them, and seeing how wide and big they were.

I knew the time had come.

I also knew it was going to have to wait until after the holidays. Between all the many things going on, the traveling, the trying to not slack off on school, the need to declutter and reorganize, etc. I just need to get some things done first. For example, if I want to do The 30 Day Shred again I have to decide where I want to do it. Last time I exercised in our bedroom but now the dvd player that was in there is in the living room, so there are just a few minor details to take care of before I start my challenge on the 1st. If I was smart, I’d get started on it early so that I could go ahead and get past the first few days of soreness. ; )

I talked about doing this last week on Twitter and there were several of you who said that you needed to do the same thing. By all means! Join in with me. Challenge yourself to get up and take care of yourself. Take the first step towards a healthier you. And the next, and the next. Even if you don’t have a lot of weight to lose, or if you’ve been exercising and just need some help getting back in the habit, let this challenge inspire you to take charge of your health. Nobody is going to do it for you. Let’s do this together, but not for each other, not for the sake of blogging or traffic or visits. Not because everybody else is doing it or because it’s the new year and the time for working off all the holiday goodies. We need to do it because it’s the right thing to do.