Jogging on the medeival tool of torture known as a tread mill (seriously, I jog for 20 minutes and I am still in the same spot as I started?) I could not help, unfortunately, but to feel the bouncey bouncey of my....extra poundage. My belly...no stomach, it is too big to be called a belly, my chest(I don't have man-boobs...), my chin(s) and cheeks (both).
You get the idea.
My body was bouncing with every pound pounce on the tread. Heart beat up, sweat rolling down and I thought to myself "How am I keeping going? This is not very comfortable!"
How do I keep the feet going? I imagine with each bounce that an smidge of fat is getting "bounced" from the party otherwise known as my body. (Oh and it's a party, but I digress.)
And that is the key to any athletic momentum. The mind must travel from it's current situation and envision something else. The mind will play with you. One side of the brain yells-YELLS, "STOP! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" This is the side of the brain that I have always given in to and that I think most people do. It is typically the loudest, it is the part that wants to preserve your body and save it from pain and displeasure.
The challenge is giving a louder voice to the side of your brain, the creative side. This is the side that is able to transport itself to another place. Not exactly transcendental meditation but see it as a way to take your mind off of the task at hand as far as it's discomforts. Remember that we have the ability to control the thoughts of our mind and heart.
Victor Frankl wrote "Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually."
So I picture what it will be like to run an extra 30 seconds without pain, with strength. And I do it. Then I think about with it will look like to run longer with few if any walk breaks. Or I think about what it will be like to see the looks on people's faces when I am at my goal weight. How I may inspire them to make a change for the better in their life.
I ask myself a series of questions:
What if this didn't hurt? What would you do?
Can you believe you are doing this?
Feels good doesn't it?
What feels better? Eating or this? No really.
Can you feel him inside there? Fighting to get out? Let him out! Let the thin man out, the strong one! He has been a prisoner for too long!
Some questions are not as serious:
Is she checking you out?
Is he checking you out? Eeewww, get back to running you idiot.
Are my shorts falling?
Was that me that just let out some gas? Nah, it was the guy next to me. Yeah, that's it.
Can everyone see this stomach bouncing?
Seriously, is she checking you out? Oh never mind, she is like 80.
Point is, I do whatever it takes to envision success. To find joy in the discomfort. A wise friend once told me that our bodies were made for running. I am doing to my body what it wants to do.
As for the pain, I invite it. I ask it get bigger and bigger so that I can see it. I run in to it, not away from it. I put my head down and run through it. For on the otherside is VICTORY! On the otherside of the wall is the man that cries to be free! It is my mission to seek him. To set him free.
Strength and Honor. What we do in life, echoes in eternity.
Hey Christian! Well said! I myself just started regularly exercising in August. Now, I haven't seen the numbers really change on the scale, but I definitely notice the clothes I own fitting better and improvement in stamina and overall "feeling good." These are the things I remind myself of when I am on the trail. I maybe get 2 miles twice a week (hence the lack of true fat burning, probably) now that it is dark winter time, but it can feel like such an inconvenience to rush home from work, change, wash the make up off, hit the road, get all sweaty, etc. It changes the time I eat dinner, when I fall asleep, etc. But it's worth it!
ReplyDeletePeople have told me that physical therapists say that if a person was a runner as a child, it's not that bad on the body to be running as an adult. However, to start running as an adult can be problematic. Great, I say, I finally am happy about the free-est form of exercise, and it's gonna' cause pain.
But it was my teaching partner who pointed out that the lifestyle I've had since childhood (basically, sedintary) wasn't really pain-free either. Starting this lifestyle is the exchange of future problems, current gasping for breath on the stairs, etc. for sore muscles, perhaps some sprained ankles, and maybe some joint pain.
I'm thinking I like the trade off. I'm not gonna' believe the lie that there will be any kind of completely discomfort-free life anymore!!
:)