Ran a 10K in May 2011. Excuses, excuses as to why I can’t now. Ugh!

I recently returned to my gym. The guy checking me in said you haven’t been here since February 2012. Pointing out the obvious, he tried to create shame but I said, “I know! Where is the welcoming committee and ticker-tape parade?”

I know those righteous, faithful-attending gym goers don’t get people like me. But that didn’t stop my happiness to be back. The first run felt great until… I woke up the next morning.

It’s that feeling in your gut when you know you’d be a lot farther along had you not quit.

Sometimes it feels like I go round and round the same mountain. I make feeble attempts to change something but nothing really changes. My lack of success creates guilt which brings on a heaviness which seems impossible to lift. Before I know it, not only did I not make it to the gym today. I polished off that extra chocolate cupcake to make myself feel better. I mean why not make it worse?!?  I’m definitely not making it better. Here I am, back at the beginning.

Consistency creates emotional stability.

I never did sports or had any athletic prowess growing up.  Three years ago, thanks to one of my best friends, I finally achieved a level of athletic ability that I felt proud of. After 6 months of cardio and weight training, my friend decided I was ready for the class. It was an interval training class that toyed with your heart rate like a yo yo. Worked every muscle in your frame. And lasted 75 mins.

The first time I took this class. I was so sore. I was literally sick for two days after it. The second week was a little better, I only hobbled for days. The third week it finally got to the good kind of sore. By the sixth week, I actually felt like I was part of the class, not an observer, and the next day I felt great!

The point is the hardest part was the starting- that first class. The realization of how HARD it was made me want to quit…

This book is how many pages? You want me to lose how many pounds? I can’t eat that for how many days? How much paperwork? How many phone calls to get a sale? What to the what what?!?

It feels so not worth it.

I really didn’t want to go to that class that second week after barely being recovered from the first week. But true friends don’t let friends quit. (You always need a good friend). So I went back and it was a little easier. Our first attempt at changing something isn’t a fair read on how its going to be. Doing something consistently does get easier when it gets to the consistent part.

Friend in middle who wouldn’t let me quit. Friend on far left who won in our age division.

Eventually that mountain that you think you are going round and round. The view begins to change. You realize that with each curve around the mountain you are gaining a higher altitude and a better view. It’s less work to get around the next time and the next. Very soon, your mountain that stood in the way will become your stool upon which you see everything different.

So what happens when the guy says I haven’t seen you since Feb 2012? Every time you quit, you start back at the beginning- the hard part. I find myself at the bottom of an otherwise conquered mountain. Ugh!

For those of us that are back at the base. We know the terrain, remember the pain and will reach the top again. The pathway to consistency is the hardest at the beginning and quitters have to start over. If that mountain seems unconquerable, maybe you are just doing the hardest part over and over again. Quit starting and start finishing.

Maybe instead of having to poke fun at the righteous, faithful gym goers, I will soon be one of them. But don’t worry. I won’t stare down my nose at you. No matter how many times you walk through that door for the first time (cause I hope you’re not counting how many times I’ve walked through), I’ll keep cheering you on!