Failure to Resist

This morning, after 2 breathtaking hours of writer's block, I gave in and went to find Lor, to ask her for some input.

"Talk about your struggles between activity and inactivity" was her immediate response.

Funny, I didn't realize I was even experiencing that struggle.

But, it is true that for every day I walk a couple of miles, there is a day when I only walk around the block. My resistance training is still happening three days a week, but I am getting zero results out of it - my forearms are now developing the same "droop" that my upper arms and legs have been suffering from for months. 

And, yes, the truth is I would rather watch football, play WoW, or work on my novel than go out for a multiple-mile hike.

So, yeah, I suppose you could call that a struggle between motion and inertia, if you wanted to get technical.

The thing is, most everyone I know who has begun a workout program eventually experiences that moment when they began to enjoy it so much that they crave it. Heck, I once experienced it, about two decades ago - I wanted to get back to the gym. Nowadays, I look at my workout days with an overwhelming sense of "Meh." It is something I am doing because I have to, not because I want to. I am not even getting any kind of positive body-shaping reinforcement out of it, so there is very little to get excited about.

Thank goodness for Vixen and her daily walks. Here, I have no choice - if the dog is not walked, she holds her bodily functions, despite having a doggie door and a backyard of her own. If she hangs on too long, she gets very, very ill - which makes us feel very, very bad. So, every day, I am forced out of the house to haul her around to sniff bushes, attack larger dogs, and, finally, take care of business.

We have experimented with taking her on a preliminary walk around the block, then doing a "real" 2.5-mile walk. While it certainly sped up our walking pace, Lor hated walking around without Vixen, so we abandoned the concept. We may just revert to throwing the dog in a backpack as soon as she has taken care of her bodily functions, to combine the two ideas. That or just resign ourselves to moving at the snail-like pace of 2 miles an hour that walking with a sniff-machine results in.

So, to add it up: disinterest, boredom with routine, failure to see positive results...yeah, I guess my activity:inactivity index is tilting heavily to the right. I am going to have to bear down a little harder, or find some other outlets to try - we know that the surest way to fail at long-term weight loss is to quit exercising. And failure is not an option.

I Refuse To Have Given Up Beer Only To Remain Obese,

- Hawkwind