Just do it
Yesterday after work, I did not want to workout. I'd had to work from 9 to 4 on a Saturday and I wanted to buy a giant chocolate bar and watch DVDs because I 'deserved it'. This happens to me so often. I don't want to, I don't want to, I just don't want to.
But what did I do to 'deserve' skipping a workout? What makes me think cheating myself out of fitness is a reward? Don't I deserve to be healthy? To look good? To have a top-shelf booty?!
I really, really did not want to do a work out. I talked to myself about overtraining, about listening to my body and taking a rest day when I need one, but you know what? I was only making excuses. I was talking myself out of doing the right thing.
Going against all my inclinations, I put on my exercise clothes anyway, dragged out the Step and Cathe's Low Max, moved the sofa out of the way and I did that workout. You know why? It's not about how you feel on the day. It's about a bigger picture than the way you feel at the moment. When I finished that workout, I looked at myself in the mirror, dripping with sweat, I checked myself out from all angles and I felt as triumphant as some kind of ancient warrior. How would I have felt if I'd sat on my butt and eaten a chocolate bar?
This morning it was Jari Love's Get Ripped to the Core. Everyday is a new day. Everyday you start over. Everyday you face the choice: am I going to work out, am I going to do what I know is right for my body and health? Or am I going to lie to myself yet again about why I 'deserve' to mistreat myself, to sabotage my own well-being and to perpetuate an endless cycle of self-loathing.
You have to keep pressing through, you have to keep challenging yourself, and you have to set your emotions aside.
Nike was right. You have to just do it.