This morning, I woke up at 5am to go to the gym before I went to church. I am staying with a friend in town for maybe 2 days since I have to get my car repaired tomorrow and without adequate transportation, I knew going to the gym was probably not going to happen. I am currently reading a book called "Monday Morning Choices" (will further be referred to as MMC) by David Cottrell and in chapter 2, he talks about committing passionately to our goals.
He says a lot of people are interested in achieving their goals, but seldom do they commit to them. Commitment means doing whatever you have to do to be sure the it gets done. And when you're passionate about your commitments, you will more than likely be successful. Just a little plug, this is an awesome book! I ordered mine from Amazon (a used copy) for $.01 plus $3.99 for shipping....pretty much costing me only $4.00 for a real gem!!
Either way, one of my goals is to be healthy and to look good which will be achieved by eating right and working out. So yes, being fit is and has always been a goal for me. Unfortunately, I've never fully committed to this goal. I've always been interested in being fit, but when it came down to committing, I always fell off the wagon some way or another. My sister used to always tell me when I was younger that I wasn't dedicated enough. I used to resent those words, but she was right. I had no dedication whatsoever. When it was hard, I'd quit! Or I'd be doing well for a while, then something would come up and being fit would just go right out the window.
After reading chapter 2 in MMC, I made a decision to start getting serious about being healthy and looking good. I first had to start educating myself about foods and different fitness routines. I started going to a Boot camp class at my gym 2 days/week and asking the trainers in the gym questions if I wasn't sure about something. I also watched a video on YouTube called Sugar: The Bitter Truth (I found out about this in the January 2013 issue of O Magazine). This video changed.my.life!!! That is a topic for another blog though. I'll get more into that later.
Then I had to develop a mantra for myself. Sometimes you really do have to encourage yourself. I was laying in my bed this morning and I could hear the rain pouring down outside! Now who doesn't like sleeping to the sound of rain? If you don't, that's fine...but know that I love it!! My goal was to get up at 5am and prepare to go to the gym. I rolled out of the bed a little early (around 4:50am) and started getting ready.
I'm a huge scardy cat (with bad nerves), so I really don't like going to the gym when it's dark outside and after staff hours...but going to a 24 hour gym does has it's perks when you have goals to get up and go at 5am on a Sunday morning. I get to the gym and of course, no one is there. Duh...it's the 5am hour on the day of rest! Of course no one is in there! I get in there and I notice someone left a book on top of the cubbies. I get a little closer and I notice it's a pocket sized version of the New Testament. I immediately felt at ease and reminded myself that God was with me and there was no need to fear (Matthew 14:27).
After that, I got to work and I worked out as hard as I could. All while chanting my mantra: "I wanna be healthy...I wanna look good". I've noticed that a determined attitude, a mantra, and good music can get you through any workout. Even the bad ones that you're not proud of, you at least got it done! And besides, there's always tomorrow to do it again and make it awesome!!
Do you have a mantra for working out? What are your fitness goals?
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