Determined To Succeed

I am so sorry this is so late today. I had an appointment this morning out of the office (O.K. actually away from the nook in my apartment from which I write this daily weight loss bloggy blog) so I was unable to post before I left. I am doubly sorry because it ended up that the meeting I went to was a waste of my time and was the most expensive cup of coffee I’ve ever had.

I paid $16 for one small cup of coffee.

The meeting I had was one of those first-thing-in-the-morning meetings where you know you will have to get ready and leave early because you don’t want to hit rush hour and be late. You also hope and pray at least coffee would be served. Thank God it was. I soooooo needed a cup.I was also getting a bit hungry. And not only was coffee being served but they had a very nice spread of soft drinks, water, bagels and muffins. It was actually fairly nice for something I knew wasn’t going to last all-day.

Well, I do not know about you guys but food at meetings is like a magnet that draws me in. The yummy breads are the flames to which my hungry wings are drawn. I most times wouldn’t even care what kinds of muffins they were, either (they looked like lemon and blueberry). I would just lay waste to them licking my chops afterward.

But something happened today which was awesome. The most and more the meeting pissed me off the less and less hungry I got. I sat silently as I looked at the three people with whom I was meeting (the third coming in with only about ten minutes left so what’s the point) and wondered to myself “what the hell am I doing here?!”

So it didn’t matter that I was hungry and the muffins looked fresh and good. I didn’t want them. I didn’t want to waste my calories on not just a breakfast I would regret later, calorie wise, but one provided from people who seemed more scattered than they should have been, especially since they were leading the meeting.

In the end, I did what was required. I shook hands and wished everyone a good day. However the taste left over in my mouth was not that of a sweet lemon muffin (which at the beginning I really wanted). It was a bitter taste, the taste of a waste of my early morning.  I walked out the door holding my slightly-more caffeinated head high and got to the parking garage.

When I approached the “pay me here” kiosk I handed over  my ticket and the young dude, who was far more interested in texting someone than working, came back and said “$16.” I nearly crapped myself. You have to be S%#@@*&g me! $16 for no more than an hour-and-a-half? Damn! Having no choice I handed over my plastic and drove out as fast as I could.

So there you have it. The tale of my morning and my day so far, and the most expensive cup of coffee I’ve ever had. However, I am so glad I didn’t give in to the food temptations at the meeting. They looked yummy, yes. They looked fresh, yes. They were available, yes. But that didn’t mean I should have them, no. That meeting may have been a waste but I am so glad I didn’t waste calories on top of my time.

I may not get my $16 recouped for the meeting but I made smart food choices this morning. And that, my dear friends, is priceless no matter what time of day it is.

P.S. – the soft drinks were Pepsi and you know I was having none of that.

Download This Episode

Sometimes the best things come in simple packages.

I am asked all the time, “Bill. What’s your secret? How did you lose all that weight?” Each question asked like the answer is going to be like the wave of a magic wand – quick and easy. When I give the answer you can almost see the person deflate, as if I had just told her she or he would never be happy again.

“Watching what I eat and exercise.”

Bah! Who wants to hear that? But it get’s better. The next question I’m asked is the one that really separates the adults from the children.

Q: “Bill, how long did it take?”

If you follow my blog (and I hope you do kind of like the old Prell commercials. I’d love for you to tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on…) then you’ll know there is no magic pill. There is no “oh you can do this by next week (or even next month). My answer is simple:

A: “It took me three-and-a-half years.”

Again, if the person wasn’t deflating before this really put the pin in the balloon.

Q: “You mean to tell me I actually have to exercise and it might take that long?”

A: “Yup.”

Response: “Sigh.”

I get these questions a lot and I really do not mind answering them at all. I have always been a person who tries to set an expectation so that anyone else attempting what I did isn’t going into it with blinders on. But I heard a question yesterday I hadn’t heard before and the simple yet beautiful answer shocked even me.

I was talking to a new weight loss buddy of mine and she shared with me the story of her conversation with a personal trainer. I can’t remember whether it was she who asked this question or the trainer relayed it to her as part of an overall answer but the question was justified and the answer simply incredible.

Q: “What is the best exercise to do if you want to lose weight?”

A: “The one you will keep doing for the rest of your life.”

For some reason that hit me like a ton of dumbbells. I was expecting something like “Well, you could do 100 abdominal crunches followed by 25 ABC and then 25 XYZ.” But no, the answer was simply “whatever you’ll do for the rest of your life.” And that is so true.

It took me a while to find out what exercises I like doing. The elliptical intimidate dthe crap out of me the first time I even looked at the bloody thing. I had heard such stories about it. “Oh man, that thing kicked my ass.” Or “I can only do ten minutes on it before I’m ready to fall over.” But I ended up loving the elliptical and now I can do half-an-hour on it (maybe more) each time. And today, I am visiting a personal trainer for the first of two trial sessions to try to learn new exercises to further break up my exercise routine, tone up and lose the last 12 pounds I need to lose to reach my goal weight. And you bet your butt I’ll be blogging about that tomorrow.

So as you get ready to start (or even continue exercising) do the exercises that excite you. Do the exercises you get into and want to keep doing. That you miss when you don’t do them. The exercises that kick your butt but in a good way. Everyone’s exercise m.o. will be different but you really should enjoy exercising or else you won’t be able to keep it up as part of a lifestyle for the rest of your life.

The answer to that question really put the classic “good things come in small packages” spin on the age-old question. Except this time the phrase should be “the best answers come in simple packages.”

Q: “Do I really believe that?”

A: “Yup.”