Determined To Succeed

Happy Monday, my friends. Let’s start this week off with a basic refresher science lesson. I know, I know. “It’s too early in the week for physics and I haven’t had my coffee yet.” But stick with me. This one’s easy…

You guys have heard of Newton’s First Law of Motion, right? Newton’s First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it, and a body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.

The southern New Jersey and Philadelphia areas have had rain since yesterday, with more rain expected tomorrow. It’s cool (somewhere in the 40s) and the skies have a light grey look to them. Drops of rain gently hit puddles of collected water in the streets outside creating small ripples colliding with other competing small ripples and you can hear the wet rolling of the tires on cars as they drive by on the street.  In general, this is a blah day indeed, perfect for just kicking-back, finding a good old movie on TCM or some such channel and curling up on the couch.

It is such a struggle on days like today to get up and get moving. My body, which has pretty much just woken up, still feels “at rest” and would be more than happy to stay “at rest” and let today be spent watching those drops of rain hit puddles, stay under the covers or on the couch while listening to the wet car wheels roll by as I mentioned above. In other words, my body would be more than happy not to have an outside force (me getting up to exercise) cause it to lose its “at rest” status.

Because I am human, rainy days are perfect examples of when I fight the urge NOT get up and exercise.

It would be so easy to justify not getting up, putting on my gym clothes and working out on the elliptical. I’d blame it on the rain (oh, great! Now I’ve got a Milli Vanilli song going through my head!) and say to myself “I’ll just get up and workout doubly hard tomorrow.” Sound familiar? I know it does to me. I can’t tell you how many times in my fat life I’ve said those words. And I’m not saying I won’t ever say them again. I am human, after all. I just won’t say them today because on the good news front, thanks to some smart eating choices, cutting out soda (yes, including my beloved ice-cold Cokes) and exercising, I survived the weekend and am back to 236.5. Just eleven pounds to go before my goal weight is re-achieved.

With that in mind I am willing my body to be “in motion.” I am telling myself to get up and get moving. This weight ain’t gonna lose itself and even though it is a perfect, lazy rainy day I will get up and stay in motion at a constant velocity and will not be acted upon by the outside force of me wanting to be lazy and not workout today. I am going to get my workout “on” and will do my 4 miles on the elliptical, push-ups, sit-ups, weight machines and dumbbells. I will stay on my downward trend.

See, science and physics are not too terribly bad on a Monday, are they? Well, at least as reminders to get up and get moving to achieve a weight loss goal.