Just Do it! (or, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!)

Yesterday reminded me a lot of a year ago.

Getting off the extra high carb foods lately - dinners out for the New Year's and then with friends to celebrate my birthday in January - has been difficult.

I buckled down all last week. I had three things going for me:

1. I knew I could do it.
2. I knew how to do it.
3. I was tired of being tired (so very motivated to do it).

All I had to do was decide to do it.

What else did I know?

• I'm a procrastinator. I know this about myself.
• I may have adult ADD - that's my sister's working theory on me and her, shared by our Mom to explain why she couldn't train us to be more organized and neat. I do get distracted easily. I think that's just a sign that I don't really want to do something, but hey if we can blame it on something other than me, who am I to argue?
• Or is my distraction just a way of procrastinating? Wouldn't that make all procrastinators part of the ADD crowd? Sounds like profiling to me!

Okay, so the point of knowing this about myself is that I know if I am going to do something, I just have to decide to do it -- as our venerable first lady Reagan once said - "Just do it!"

I apply that now to many things. If I think of something I meant to tell someone, I'll call right then and leave them a message (unless it really is the middle of the night and I know this friend won't appreciate a call between 12 am and 6 am. In that case, maybe I should call my office and leave myself a voicemail to remind me to tell them "this thing" I need to tell them. More than likely, tho, I will be on the computer and will email myself a note to do so (if I can't just email the information or thought to them). I have to do it now.

Yesterday, I had excuses why I wasn't exercising:

1. It's too cold at 10:30 in the morning to meet up with friends and go for a hike.
2. It's too early at 10:30 on a Saturday morning to get going and out the door.
3. My son didn't want to go hiking.
4. It's past 10:30.
5. My hip is hurting too much, better not go to the 11:00 Zumba class.
6. It's past 11:00.
7. I'll just read one more thing on the internet.
8. I'll leave after I finish this.

Does this sound familiar?

My brain starts its arguing in the opposite direction:

1. I'll "Just DO IT" and then I won't have to think about it anymore.
2. I'll go at 2 pm.
3. The dog needs it.
4. The park is not far away.

Again, the son doesn't want to go, my hip is hurting, I am finding so many interesting things to read online - I can't keep up with them! I need folders and files. There's so much to do around the house. It is my day of rest.

Eventually I look up and it's 3:15. So, finally, I just put down what I am doing (which I didn't want to leave) and I force ACTION.

Guilt is gone. Pain in the hip didn't disappear, but I did have hope that moving would "oil the joint" a bit.

Sometimes last year, this was all the exercising I got - a lot of arguing with myself to just "do it" and arguing against myself just as well. Do you find yourself arguing with yourself a lot?

So, I wasn't exercising much in January and February last year, but it was better than long nights at the office spent with vending machine goodies and pizza delivery which I had done the January and February before.

How are you doing this year compared to last year?