Mental Victory

Here's a revelation I had today. I was looking in the mirror, and I realized I was okay. And really, it's more of a mental thing.

In the last few weeks, my sister has put me through a few tough work outs and I generally work out 3-5 times a week, even if it's just walking my dogs for 15 minutes. Through this working out, I feel so much better about myself. My clothes fit a bit better, but it's probably not a substantial change from a few weeks ago when I started working out.

Rather, it's my mentality that's changed. Because I'm taking care of myself. Because I'm learning to respect myself and know that what I'm doing now will help. When I look at myself in the mirror, and even when I'm just in public, I feel better about myself because I know I'm in the process of getting healthy. I'm making a real effort to improve my health, and I feel like it's paying off. This only aides in my consistency of working out, which is what I need.

I think working out, particularly on the harder workouts, has also opened my eyes to additional ways I can better myself. One day I only drank pop. I probably had a glass of water, but otherwise it was Diet Coke. That night during my workout, I wanted to smack myself. It just didn't feel as cleansing knowing I didn't have water in me, that I had junk food. While it's probably not the case, I felt like it prevented me from having an optimum workout. I just had this vision of sweating out Diet Coke instead of water, and it didn't sit well with me.

Hopefully this will lead to more changes, but for now I'm trying to take it one day at a time. When 8 p.m. rolls around, I remind myself of how great I'll feel if I get out for a walk, even if it's just 10 or 15 minutes. It's the small things that can start to add up - and they can add up to a lot.