Week 4 Weight Loss Challenge – Committed
June 18, 2011
Today is Day 2, Week 4 of my fitness challenge with my blogger fit pal . Being accountable to someone really makes a difference. I already feel committed in my mind to working out everyday. My body still fights just to sit in front of the tv, but I’m winning that battle to move. Last week, working out became my savior. I entered another challenge to support my mother last week. She gave up television and junk food for one week to support a friend who felt like she had become a TV junkie. Aren’t we all? I said to my mom, “Good luck.” And giggled to myself. Then that night I thought about my mother sitting in her recliner reading books and taking notes. She looked so studious. And there I was being useless as I stared at the screen like a zombie. I flipped off the TV and picked up a magazine, read and soon drifted off to sleep. The next morning I called my mom from work and announced that I, too, would stop watching TV for a week. I oddly felt free when I said that. 
The next few days were busy, so I didn’t care about watching the tube. I did longer workouts after work, because there were no shows to rush home to see. By Sunday, I did a short workout and became obsessed with the idea that I’m couldn’t watch TV. I had to unplug it to keep from turning it on. At one moment I laid in bed with my back to the TV, gripping my pillow because I didn’t know what to do with myself. TV withdrawals are bad ya’ll. I nearly went stir crazy so I caved and went to see a movie.
What I noticed by not watching TV this past week was that I was letting it take precious exercise time. I typically prefer to work out in the mornings. The weather has been beautiful at 6- 6:30 am and I’ve been wasting it watching movies in the morning before work. I’ll get on my bike or do some weights while watching, but the walk/run I do outside is far more intense. One week of TV hasn’t changed my life, but it did illuminate the fact that I need to be more attentive to my workouts and their intensity. Basically when I workout I really needed to make them count.
