Find your Inspiration

Find your Inspiration

What inspires you? Is it a sunset, a good book, a success story, or a person you know? How do you find inspiration? Do you search for it, does it come to you in a dream, or does it smack you over the head with  large club in the middle of a Saturday afternoon when you least expect it?

Now mind you, I don’t lack an abundance of inspiring friends or family members. If there is an inspiring tale, I’ve either read it or watched the movie version. But this time it was that Saturday afternoon club-over-the-head that got my attention.

I was at a baby shower for my friend Mary, who is nearly eight months pregnant.  And I’ll be damned if she’s not in better shape than me. Her thighs are half the size of mine, her face is thin and perfect, and when she turns her back to you, she has a perfect hour glass figure – to which one would never suspect she was due to deliver in early March, and of course the cutest baby bump ever.

I heard her tell my sister that she makes an effort to get on the treadmill forty minutes every day.

Then it hit me – BAM – club-over-the-head – there it was…..INSPRIATION!

This gal – only a few years younger than me – works fulltime, likely gets less sleep than I do, and she carves out forty minutes a day to workout.  Sheesh, when I was pregnant the only thing I was dedicated to was four brownie Sundaes a day…..which could be part of my problem now.

After spending the remainder of the baby shower sucking in my gut and realizing – try as I might - you can’t suck in your ass, it dawned on me that I could do this too!  Well, let’s be honest, first I’d have to ditch the laundry list of excuses I use for why I can’t get to the health club. Too busy, work too much, too tired, too busy making excuses……blah, blah, blah…..

So Sunday afternoon I did it, I went to the gym and logged forty minutes on the treadmill. It sort of felt good. Huh….who knew?  Monday morning I did it again. 2.3 miles and 40 minutes logged. Now, I’m not a runner, weak ankles and bad knees (mostly from gaining way too much weight with both of my pregnancies) so I walk, but at a pretty good clip. I even get my arms moving. I’m sure to the casual bystander I look like I’m have a seizure…or swatting at a swarm of angry bees, but none-the-less I’m moving in a positive direction.

Five minutes into my walk this morning a perky blond stepped onto the treadmill to my right.  She did her five minute warm up walk then went into a nice jog. Well I felt completely foolish….I should be running too…..I’m so lame….

Then I was struck by more inspiration. This isn’t a competition. It’s not a race.  I don’t have to keep up with the perky blond; I don’t have to strive to be better than her. The only competition I’m in is with me.  I need to work at being better today than I was yesterday. I can’t let the perfect blond with the supermodel legs and the Playboy Bunny boobs distract me from my goal. My 2.3 miles still burned calories, it got my heart rate up, and there was sweat. Am I pounds lighter and inches thinner….well that would certainly motivate one, but it’s not likely. This is going to be a work in progress. It took 10 years to put thirty extra pounds on this frame; it’s not going away over night. But I feel good about getting back to the gym. Will I ever run on the treadmill? Perhaps in short intervals and maybe as a next step in my goal, but for now I’m just focusing on getting to the gym and not living a sedentary lifestyle all my waking hours.

Now, get out and find your inspiration…..STAT!