Choose Your Hard

Everyone who begins a journey towards a healthier lifestyle, has that "aha!" moment which gets them off the couch and moving -- that gets them motivated.  For many people it is seeing themselves in a photograph or a home video.  You sort of get that horrified feeling where you think, "I really look like THAT!"  Trust me, I have had many of those moments.  Sometimes they got me to start a "diet".  The diet lasted just a few days or a week if I was lucky.  Then, I was back in my old routine -- throwing caution to the wind...getting fatter and fatter.  I still see those pictures of me that make me want to puke, but none of those pictures ever motivated me like the phrase that is strategically placed at the top of this blog entry.  THIS is what got me off my overweight ass.  This could quite possibly be the phrase that saved my life.  "Why?" you may ask.  Well, because it is true...painfully, true.  It makes so much sense!  Yes, losing weight is hard, but so is being fat!  Why not choose the healthier of the two "hards?"

So, in honor of this phrase, I am going to list the things that are hard about being fat vs. getting fit.  Drumroll, please...

BEING FAT:

1. The way it eats away at my self-confidence
2. My knees getting bad at the age of 33 (that shouldn't happen)
3. Being winded after climbing stairs
4. Not being able to shop in regular stores
5. Having feet too wide for the REALLY cute shoes
6. Having calves way to wide to wear knee high boots  (can you tell I am bitter about the lack of footwear options I have sometimes?)
7. I could die before my time due to heart disease or any number of illnesses that could have been preventable.
8. That one is worth repeating -- I COULD DIE...and it could have been preventable.
9. Not being able to buy tank tops or shirts with really short sleeves because of my horrible, hanging arm fat.
10. Feeling helpless and less important
11. Hating to look in the mirror
12. The self consciousness that just gnaws away at me in pretty much any social situation

LOSING WEIGHT

1. Having to get my butt up to exercise even when I would rather watch TV
2. Counting every calorie I put in my mouth
3. Not being able to eat exactly what I want, when I want to eat it.
4. Pushing myself physically to places I didn't know I could go
5. Having to buy smaller clothes due to my shrinking ass.......

Hmmm....Losing weight isn't seeming so "hard" is it?  I mean, even the "hard" things in the this category are good things.  I have chosen my difficult task -- and it is to lose this weight!