It Starts When You are Honest with Yourself

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about thinking.

Thinking about my self-declared universal truth that says, "Your brain is the hardest muscle to train." And thinking about body image and how strange my own is sometimes. And thinking about the ways I talk myself into and out of doing right, wrong and otherwise.

On the one hand, this whole drama we call losing weight or getting healthy or getting fit seems so complicated. How to eat. When to eat. What to eat. What NOT to eat. How to exercise. When to exercise. What exercise is right/enough/good/bad. How to convince yourself to exercise even when you don't want to. What is the difference between not wanting to and not able to. It all makes my head spin.

And then I remember ...

It's not that hard.

The truth is, in the end, it's calories in, calories out. Simple math. And there's no magic pill, no complicated algorithm to success. If you're gaining weight, you're not eating right and you're not burning enough off.

That's it. That's all there is.

But you can't do anything about it until you acknowledge it. If you're not honest with yourself about what you're putting in and what you're burning off, you simply cannot fix it.

Does the handful of potato chips matter? Yes. Does one beer really make a difference? Yes. Does one cookie count? Yes. Every single time.

As soon as you are honest with yourself about what "true" is, you can get to work on how to make it better. The truth is, acknowledging the reality might be easier, as hard as it is, then investigating the whys.

Why do I grab those potato chips? Why to I drink that one beer? Why can't I stop with one cookie?

From where I sit, though, finding why is just a stall tactic in some ways. Does it really matter why? At some point, you just have to decide to do it.

And then do it. Whether you like it or not. Whether you're ready or not. Whether it's hard or not.

(Spoiler alert: You're not going to like it most of the time. You're not ever going to be ready. And it's going to be hard some days.)

Does this sound harsh? I'm not accusing you of anything. In fact, if anything, I'm accusing me. I fall into these same traps. All. The. Time. I want to blame someone or something for why I'm not successful.

In the end, it's all on me.

And as soon as I am honest with myself ... and start to believe I'm worth the effort ... it gets easier.