Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – December 21, 2004

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – December 21, 2004

My Final Progress Report

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – December 21, 2004 – I am pretty much on a holiday break now – my clients have left town for the week or are waiting for next year when more new listings to will be available to see. You may be thinking – what a perfect time for a work-out, perhaps a little walk with Howard, a stretch on the Pilates machine – maybe a light session with free weights.

All of these things are possible – none of them has happened. I’m no longer fighting the exercise battle. I have officially given up – it is not going to happen this year. I surrender. In early December I got in four work outs and I was hopeful that I’d make some progress on this front. It baffles me why something that is so good for me is this difficult to master. I’ve done it before. I’ve been in excellent physical condition in the past. I’ve been strong, toned, sleek and slender. It makes me feel healthy, powerful, sexy, confident and in command of my life.

It can be accomplished in an hour a day – five days a week. Let’s see there are 168 hours in a week. I’m talking 5 hours here – that leaves me 163 hours a week to earn a living, sleep, eat, have fun, make a positive contribution to my community, see friends, look after The Alphabet Boys and be a good person. What can possibly be so hard about this?

Instead I feel chubby, out of shape, drab and defeated. There is no logic here and I don’t think I’d find any if I lived to be a hundred years old. It defies all reason. Even the great philosophers would be hard pressed to make sense of it. Not to spend five hours a week moving my body when the gains are so obvious. It’s lunacy on my part. Perhaps I have a screw loose and need to be committed. Maybe I suffer from some deep, deep inner turmoil that has rendered me incapable of appreciating the benefits of superb health. Maybe I’m just lazy or just really don’t care how I look. If I was a hundred pounds overweight I might have a shot at reasoning with this beast.

A couple of years ago I did the Power 90 Program religiously for 6 days a week – rested on Sunday and was right back at it the next Monday. I could see results after the first three weeks. I looked better and I was sleeping better. My food intake decreased and I was drinking more water. All this was great for my health and general well-being. Then I just stopped. This is a mystery to me. These days, I’d rather sit and read than go for a walk.

If I really think about this, and realize how many people, who are ill or bedridden, would give “anything” to be able to go for a walk, I can admit to my own idiocy. I am an exercise dunderhead. I need a sweatshirt with this statement emblazoned across the front.

Ultimately, I need to re-group and try once again to make “fitness” a priority. Without good health – my life would lose so much of its joy and spontaneity. Lord knows, I don’t want a plan, a calendar or a rigid schedule. These measures just don’t work. I’ve proven that to myself over and over again this year – guilt does not motivate me. If a three ring binder and a tiger can’t do the trick, then all bets are off.

I have a few days left in 2004 to ponder this quandary. January 1, 2005 will dawn fresh and expectant and I’d better be ready. Just what form this “readiness” will take is still a complete enigma to me, but I must be steadfast in my personal commitment or I fear defeat will rear its offensive head along about the 8^th. of January.

I wish I could just bottle whatever it was that motivated my spirit to write during this year. There won’t be another progress report, dear reader, so you’re on your own now, but I trust that whatever is really important to you will rise to the surface , just as it will for me. So a final farewell from Howard – he remains ever hopeful, as do I, that our relationship will eventually blossom.