Finding the Energy to Take on Weight Loss
Posted on May 03, 2011 by Shannon Ratliff, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.
We talk about energy and willpower a lot when we talk about weight loss. Finding the energy to get started and keep it going is possible.
Have you seen the show Hoarders? I have and it made me uncomfortable about my garage.
It seems like every winter the garage situation gets out of control. Soon it’s hard to get out of the car doors without knocking something over and cursing and being generally grumpy about the whole situation. I start opening the door to pull in at the last second and closing it right away, fearful that my neighbors have seen Hoarders too and will start getting suspicious. Now, I completely get that hoarding is a real disorder and that my messy garage does not qualify as hoarding, but there is something interesting about the whole out of control garage for me personally.
During my wellness coach training someone said to me, “It is that it take more energy to not do something than to actually do it.” You lose energy when you avoid taking on annoying tasks. It’s certainly true when it came to my garage. Everyday, at least twice, I would get irritated about the garage and easily become overwhelmed about the idea of cleaning it. This would go on for several months.
Finally, on the first warm day of the spring, I opened the door and started the task. Now, my intent was to just pick up a little so that I could get in and out of the car easily. You know what happened? Not only did everything get reorganized or recycled, I actually vacuumed it and cleaned out all the cobwebs and grime. It felt great at the time and every day I feel energized when I open the door, I feel like I have it together and can take on other tasks. I am also careful to keep it clean, doing the regular maintenance. If you read my post yesterday, you can see that I not only have more energy, but that I was building momentum for bigger tasks (I actually washed and ironed the curtains the next weekend because I was feeling so good).
With weight loss it is easy to fall into the same energy sucking trap. Avoiding doing the things you know you could do to get the results you really want is ultimately taking energy from you. Becoming overwhelmed easily happens when your energy is low. Each time you skip out on doing one thing to move toward your goal, you prevent yourself from reaping the momentum building, energy gaining experience to take on the bigger tasks. Even one small step can be enough to get you going.
My opponent was the garage and yours may be something else but taking the first small step is often enough to give you energy to move on to the next step. Part of winning the war is just entering in to battle. You can choose to ignore the battle outside your window or you can chose to walk out the door. If you are reading this, you are a fierce contender. You’ve had the courage to explore new options and to find ways to reach your goal. What’s the first step to clearing out your garage?
This article is taken from a post on my blog, youvsweightloss.com__
