On Working Out and Pigging Out

Somehow I seem to be able to be simultaneously into working out and pigging out. It is the lover extremes in me that is not satisfied until I've either worked so hard that I can barely move or eaten so much that, well, I can barely move. What's up with that?

Last night Amanda made this amazing Indian dish called Chicken Saag-wala. Click on it if you want the recipe, she said to tell you that she halved the cream and added a can of diced tomatoes. I ate all of my portion and then some, then I ate way too many chocolate covered almonds for dessert. I asked Amanda to hide those things from me when she bought them.. seriously! and that worked until the other day when I was looking for something else and stumbled onto them. Once it is in my house I have trouble leaving it alone.

Monday's workout was a Crossfit standard called Filthy Fifty. Basically, you do fifty repetitions of ten different ridiculously hard exercises. You can click here to read more about the crossfit gym in Murfreesboro where I work out. I was still way sore from filthy fifty when I went in yesterday and did yet another tough one, -and now I can't wait to get back in there again tomorrow morning! Evan Satterfield and David Branch do an incredible job there. They really are "forging elite fitness" as their motto states.

Just because I like to go to the gym and work out pretty faithfully, does not mean I that don't have my struggles. I have put on and dropped the same ten pounds three or four times in the past five years. I make deals with myself, I'll be very strict until a certain deadline and then make up for lost time. I've even known a cheat meal to mysteriously turn into a cheat month if you know what I mean.

The only conclusion that I can draw from this is that there are certain habitual struggles that we may be saddled with for a lifetime. There will be ebbs and flows, but all I can do is hang in there and encourage you to do the same. If you get too down over a slip, you might not get back up again. And if you get too high from a success, look out! Temptation and/or failure may be right around the corner.

I guess I can be happy now that going to the gym is not the drudgery that it has been at other times in my life. How did I get to this point?

*First of all, I think I have repeatedly told myself over a period of years now that this is simply what I am going to do (regular exercise of some kind.) I will actually picture myself with gray hair and wrinkled skin schlepping my gym bag and pruny butt to go run or bike or lift weights when I am eighty-five.

*Then, if I get too bored or in a rut with a workout I will try something new. For instance, I had been lifting weights at the same Y for a year or so and was a little discouraged. So I decided to try a spin class. I liked it so much that I got certified as a spin instructor -and I got my membership free! But soon enough I got tired of that. I really think you need to do a more varied workout than to ride a stationary bike. Sooner or later I'm sure I'll want to try something different than I am doing now, even though that is part of why I like Crossfit. We always mix it up.

*Also, I'll sometimes buy a Men's Health magazine. Or just getting a new pair of good workout shorts or shoes can make me feel better about hitting the gym.

*Finally,I also get encouragement from talking to people who have it more together than I do. Like Amanda's cousin, Jeremy Shore. He is the real thing. If you look around, there is always someone smarter than you who would probably be glad to share what they know.

So, if you struggle with achieving a goal, start somewhere. You are not alone. The apostle Paul even said "Why do I keep doing the things that I do not want to do?" Pardon my poor paraphrasing. Everybody struggles, you win some and you lose some, but if you never try, well, you won't get anywhere.


This is a pig out that I will not repeat. Some friends and I went to Bolton's Hot Chicken and Fish on Gallatin Road in East Nashville a while back, and lets just say the end did not justify the means. (My end was on fire!)