Holiday Motivation Needed!!

Hey all! Since the holidays are here and we are all facing challenges to our diets and exercise routines, I wanted to throw a shout out for everyone to keep each other motivated. We all need it from time to time. I was looking forward to hitting the gym a lot after the baby in hopes to melt away the dreaded baby weight, but I didn't take into account a few things - 1. my gym doesn't do child care for those under 3 months, and 2. the lack of sleep I'm getting each night makes it extremely hard to want to work out. Also the fact Halloween came and went (damn those Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!), and we are now facing another holiday season full of yummy food, stressful holiday prep and lethargicism (I just made that word up). Let's all get refocused on why we want to exercise and be healthy in hopes of not needing to make new New Year's Resolutions in 2010.

We all have reasons for exercises and losing weight. We all know by now that weight loss is a continual process, and there is no easy way to do it, let alone being able to maintain a healthy weight after the initial loss occurs. I believe weight loss is so much more psychological than it ever is physical. Let's face it, our brains make the ultimate choice as to what food goes in our mouths and to how hard we choose to push our bodies in exercise. I just saw a Dr. Oz special on Morbid Obesity in America, where he took four people over a 6 month period and attempted to help them change life long eating and establish exercise habits. He said some very poignant things when it came to exercise - let me share:

"A lot of folks say they don't have time to exercise; they have excuses. They have exercise excuses coming out of their ears. The reality is you can't afford not to exercise. Exercise is the least expensive way of guaranteeing you the longevity and vitality you need to enjoy life. And by not exercising, you mortgage your future. Stop procrastinating , stop making excuses. Develop a program for yourself that allows you to get right back at it again after having a 'bad day' (or dietary indiscretion), because you're going to slip."

On the show some of the participants dropped off their eating programs because they found themselves so disappointed when they 'slipped', and used that as one of many excuses as to why they went back to the more unhealthy foods and missing their exercise. It's a spiral affect that can stop our progress quickly. In the real world it is hard to eat right despite the many temptations and make time to exercise on a consistent basis. I think especially this time of year is the toughest because healthy eating and exercise is often put on the back burner while we do everything else.

Let's not fall back and help motivate each other to keep going through the holidays. I figure we can enjoy many holiday treats but just need to ramp up our exercise to help make up for the inevitable. Just think how good we'll all feel if we all don't owe any coffee cards in December!

- Vic