I haven't personally had a snapping point like this, but I have made sudden decisions like this before. I decided one day to not eat fast food and I have only once since when I was traveling with my parents to go camping and we stopped off of a road stop.
Fast food is just really, really terrible. I think that we all know this, but we aren't appreciating food when we eat fast food like that. I cook all of my food now. Friends of mine hold community dinners in which we pool our resources to make delicious food for all of us. I cook on days that I don't eat with them and I focus on high fiber, nutritious food that is loaded with spice and flavor.
I started walking one day and I'd walk several miles a day on most days of the week.
After awhile, I decided to run. I started quick. After a couple of weeks, I was able to run two miles. After three weeks, I could run three miles.
People advise you to start slowly and work your way up for success, and I think that is generally good advice, but if you have a moment of clarity where you suddenly have very strong motivation, use it. Let your unexpected success spur you on. I'm glad that I jumped right into it.
For some people, starting slowly is great because they won't get discouraged. For other people, starting fast so that they will get encouraged is the better route. Know yourself and either way, be motivated enough that you won't give up after a setback or two.
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The weight melted off. Within four months I lost 30 pounds. Ten months after my visit to the doctor, I was down to 170. I am now two years removed from the first day of my "new" life. Besides one cigarette a few weeks after that day, I have not had another. As of this month I have lost, and kept off, a total of 75 pounds.
I kept up with my running, too, and ran my first marathon in October, with the people I care about there to cheer me on. With eight miles to go in the 26.2-mile race, I was reduced by pain almost to shuffling. I resorted to walking the last mile due to a leg cramp. Coming up the last turn with a quarter-mile to go I was clearly in pain. A man jumped out of the crowd and into the middle of the route and put his arm around me. He said, "Here is what we are going to do, we are going to start by running a little bit. Not very fast, but we are going to run. Then, when you get up there closer to the finish line, you are going to go all out. You can do it!" I did not know this man at all, and he didn't look to be a marathon runner. But it inspired me. Before that moment I had sworn off ever doing another marathon. Now I plan to run my second one this summer.
I still don't know why I decided to quit smoking, start running, and eat healthy on that cold Tuesday morning in February. But I knew that once I made that decision, I would follow it right away. I didn't wait until the next week or the next month or the next year. I made the change effective immediately. To me, that was the answer: don't wait, don't talk about it, just go out and do it.
Without anyone to cheer me on at the start, I decided to make major changes in my life, and I did. I now believe that anything is possible.
© 2008
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