Life Is Too Short

Life is too short to do something you don't like.  I feel this every time I watch a movie that was less than great.  I can't tell you how many times I sit down with a DVD that my friends have raved about and, after watching it, say to my wife, "That was a waste of 2 hours and a buck."  (Thank goodness for Redbox.)

The same goes for exercise.  For me, life is way to short to spend on the eliptical.  I hate that thing!!!  Not as much as I hate...say...Hitler, but more often.  I know it works well for a lot of people - and if you are one of them, good on you - but I just don't like it.  I cannot imagine trying to talk myself into getting on the eliptical every morning to get my 45 minutes of exercise.  I would give up within a week.  

The way I see it, if you aren't making exercise fun - or at least enjoyable - then it's a chore, and nobody wants to do chores.  That's why I do exercises that I like: walking, boxing, dancing.  Make it fun!  Don't look at exercise as something you HAVE to do.  Make it something you want to do.  (And I really want to shake it to Fatboy Slim!)

Even if you feel like you HAVE to run on the cursed treadmill, make it worth your while.  Watch one of your favorite movies or read a book.  (Some people can read on the treadmill.  I am not one of those.)

Now, let's talk about food for a minute.  Life is way too short to eat food you don't like.  Too often, while we are dieting, we buy vegetables that we loathe or rice cakes or power bars that taste like a giant Tootsie Roll dropped in a sandbox, all in the name of health.  But, after eating them for a week, we start craving a double meat pizza, and eventually we go out for the pizza and eat the entire thing.

There is no reason you can't eat  the food you love and still lose weight.  I do it.  If you look at my food diary, you'll see that I do make some "healthy" choices (whole wheat pitas, skim milk, non-fat yogurt) but I actualy like those things.  The rest of my diary is filled with "regular" food: pizza, burgers, etc.  

The difference is, I have learned to eat smaller amounts.  Instead of eating an entire container of Ben & jerry's Phish Food, I can limit it to a few bites and my craving is gone.  Granted, I may never have six-pack abs, but that's not really why I am here.  I am here to make healthy choices and, in return, lose about 100 pounds.

And life's too short to do that on an eliptical and a diet of rice cakes.