Training the Train of Thought

It's a conscious effort everyday to re-train the way I think. Yesterday, I was tired and it took just that much more effort to keep me feeling positive about things. I sometimes have to stop and re-think a thought so that I can erase a negative thought. It's weird to be conscious of your thoughts and discipline yourself by forcing myself to re-think things.

A friend of mine - who also struggles with yo-yo weight- once said to me : "don't worry if you've put on weight...if you've lost weight before, you can do it again". And that's true but this time, it's not about losing weight. This time, it's about fitness. There's a difference.

This morning at the gym, i realized that i no longer have the body i had before and all that hard work had gone to "waste" since I was back at square one again (in terms of how my body looked). But if I was in shape before, I can do it again and there's nothing stopping me from that. But being fit is not necessarily having the perfect body, it's about strength and well-being. In other words, looking good might be a side-effect of being fit but it's not necessarily a symptom of being healthy. Some people can be thin and unfit. Those are the skinny-fat people of the world. This is something I have to keep in mind while I'm re-programing my brain's thought process.

People often work out for the wrong reasons and that's why there's such a huge spike in gym memberships around January. If you go to the gym just to lose weight and look good, you might stop when you reach your goal and then rebound. This used to happen to me all the time. I would be at the gym 5 times a week, every morning doing cardio and weights but I would reach a burn-out or an obstacle that would keep me from finding time and sometimes not go for a week, sometimes a month. I realized 5 times a week is not something I'll be able to commit to for the rest of my life whereas 3 times a week might be more realistic. The way I see it now, if you go to the gym to keep yourself fit, you'll already have the mentality that it's a lifetime commitment and you'll be more likely to maintain that.

Re-programing my brain is not an easy task. I often catch myself forcing myself to re-evaluate things but it takes some getting used to and just like results at the gym, it will take time as well.