I woke up this morning sore and stiff. My back, my hip and my neck ached and didn’t want to move. If I had not known better I would have been sure I was 80 or so. After stiffly standing up and hobbling around for a minute I started stretching. Slowly my muscles started to loosen and the pain lessened. I am not 80. I am 33 years old. Evidently, no one told my muscles.
As I was stretching my mind flashed back to my husbands words a few years ago. If you want to lose weight and you want to get active you need to do it now! Once you turn thirty your body will start to change, it will get harder! I know, I know, I would grumble, feeling irritated at him. I had tried to get healthier I would think. It’s just not easy for me like it is for him.
Well, guess what? He was right! It did get harder! I should have started exercising regularly back then. If I had I would be writing a different blog post today.
So, maybe, I should feel depressed and despondent about missing my golden opportunity to get healthy and give up?
Um, no that would be silly. Why? Because we each have today. We can regret our past bad choices, we can make great plans for the future but plan to start tomorrow or we can get out of bed, time on our running shoes and do something!
I remember a quote on the wall at the job I had in college.
“When it hurts more to not change then to change you will change”
The clients there had big problems, heroin addiction, alcoholism, homelessness. Still, the simple phrase is equally true when struggling with our more day to day struggles.
We, each one of us, can be healthier. We can be active. It may be hard but we can do it!
This week I met a man who has been paralyzed for 19 years. He plays wheelchair rugby. He rolls around the neighborhood daily. He is healthy. So, seeing as how my legs work, what’s my excuse?
I don’t have one. So today, I’m going to play soccer with my family for a couple of hours. I’m going to do my planks and work on my arms.
I’m going to choose to be active today.
How about you? Isn’t it a good day to move?
“There is not really a perfectly neutral food choice, only degrees of health improving or health impeding.
– Josh Sawbraw
PdxTraining.com
From January 2014 Natural Awakening pg 11
This was supposed to be an easy post to write. When I finished my first post my brain went to work on my second. As I moved through my day the words started to roll and bounce around my brain. Slowly forming into logical and succinct sentences. I was so ready to write but just did not have the time. And, then, in a flash all my beautiful sentences were gone, pushed abruptly out by a phone call. A phone call that in retrospect reminds me of exactly why this blog is important to me. Because life, at least for now, is finite. It is fragile and can change in a second. At it’s root that is exactly the point of this blog. I would like to enjoy my life. To be healthy and active and comfortable in my skin. I think that is a goal that I share with many, many other people. What better way to really change then to do it together? My hope is that you as my readers will motivate me, push me, cheer me along and point out when I really am not sticking to my goals. In return, I hope I motivate others. I hope that you see that if I can shrink my chunky monkey then maybe you can shrink yours to, that together we can make our lives better from the inside out.
Which brings me to, what is a chunky monkey and why is that the name of my blog? Chunky monkey is a nickname I picked up somewhere along the way. It’s not a nice name and I don’t like it very much but I LOVE MONKEYS. I have loved monkeys since I was a little girl so somehow I have allowed the nickname to live. However, I am not the Chunky Monkey. The Chunky Monkey is my inner voice, not the nice one, the one that appreciates all that I have going for me. My nice inner voice appreciates my fantastic family, my nice inner voice is proud of a business I have built from the ground up, my nice inner voice has a lot going for her. The Chunky Monkey is the other voice. She hates exercise. She says things like “you have never been a healthy weight, you are fat and there is nothing you can do about it” , she says things like “Some people are fit, and some just aren’t” and “you’ve had a rough day, you deserve that ice cream cone” . I bet you have a Chunky Monkey too… maybe it says different things, maybe your Chunky Monkey isn’t even Chunky but either way she is not your biggest fan and her reign needs to end. So for my Chunky Monkey… gear up… cause if your staying on my back, the ride is about to get a lot more rugged….
theruggedchunkymonkey 