The Gym Smile

Friday, May 2, 2008

This week went by quickly! It was a success when it came to weight management. I went to the gym daily. The most difficult thing was to make the decision to work out yesterday. I felt burned out. I didn’t walk at work so I had to workout at the gym.

My mind was racing: “Should I work out or should I go home and rest? I deserve rest! It’s almost Friday and I worked a lot this week! Other than that, I woke up early. Maybe I should let household chores count as exercise.”

The most intense fights I experience in my journey happen when my body and mind are tired. Thursday was one of those days.

I made the decision to listen to reason. I dragged myself to the gym and I decided I was going to dedicate one hour to exercising in the elliptical machine. I felt like stopping at 30 minutes (really, I felt like stopping at 10 minutes) but I tricked myself to going til the end. How? I had 2 more chapters to read on “Love is a Decision.” I calculated it takes me around one hour to read two chapters on that book. On top of that, the book indeed gets more interesting in the end so reading helped with my focus. Watching TV usually makes me more tired so I didn’t even take my headphones with me.

It was hard but I went to the gym. I learned that sometimes I just have to listen to reason. Sometimes I just have to persist and go anyway. I’m interested in the full rewards that come to those who overcome complacency and master the art of listening to reason over feelings – when it comes to exercise.

I got into an interesting, short conversation yesterday in the gym. There’s this woman who works out extremely hard every time I see her. The funny thing is that she is always smiling. I asked her, ‘how come you always have a smile on your face when you workout?’ She said, ‘Music. I dread coming here, especially after a whole day of work so I listen to music while I work out.’

So, I’m not alone. Even someone who constantly carries a smile on their face have to reach to reason in order to make herself go to the gym and stay there. Interesting.