1/12th...Good enough!

I just asked someone the other day -- "How's the New Year's resolution treating you, we're almost at the end of February...?"
He looked at me and said: "I thought that was only a January thing..."
Of course! What was I thinking?? To ask a question like that. The new YEAR is only looked at in a short time frame, not twelve months. I need to open my eyes a little bit and get with the times!
But, seriously? Have you noticed that with yourself? You shoot for something that you're excited about momentarily, to eventually be shot down with in a three to four week period because it gets boring. What I notice with training is the longer you stick with it, the more fun it gets! Any runner will tell you the same thing...well, most will anyway. You find new challenges along the way to keep it interesting. Yes, it will get pretty boring if all you do is run the same amount each day, at the same pace, in the same location. Switch it up a little bit. Find new ways to exercise. That's why cross training is so important. I look back on the days of high school sports when you had practice. For us, in basketall, the first 20-30 minutes was always the same. Warm up, stretch, then straight fundamentals. After that, it was always different techniques, different drills and games to keep it fun but at the same time, working hard to accomplish your team goal. It helps focus when you go into a practice knowing you'll be doing something different than the day before. If you know exactly how far you're going, the right direction and amount of time it's going to take you, that just won't cut it. I've gotten a lot of great pointers from other runners and athletes of work outs you can do. I never thought I'd put on boxing gloves, no reason for me to do so. But now that is one of my main forms of cross training. I love it! Kettle bell workouts for ten minutes at a time, awesome! There are so many other things you can do with hardly any equipment you wouldn't believe by just reading this. You need to experience it yourself.
Oh and don't just come up with a "resolution" that lasts a month then tapers off to absolutely nothing because you have better things to do. Write out your goal, the steps you need to take to get it done and when you want to accomplish it. I did that this year.
Starting out with training on January 10th - my weight was at 181. I'm 5'8" -- not too bad, but not good either. I wasn't happy with that so I decided it's time to change. I knew it would take hard work and it hasn't happened over night. In just over six weeks, I'm down to 167 (14 lb. drop). My goal step by step was to lose two pounds a week until I get to 160, my "race weight". Reasonable and attainable. Six times two = twelve. Looks like I'm ahead of schedule. Even if I was two pounds behind schedule, at least it's happening. You'll have some minor set backs and maybe even a major set back. Don't let that bring you down. Take it for what it's worth, get back into it slowly and get the training back on track.
Choices are made every day. When you get up in the morning, you make the decision as to whether or not you're going to have a good or bad day. What you hear and see can determine your attitude...but that's all by choice. You can choose to respond to something you see or hear right away in the morning in a negative way, ruining your outlook on the entire day or you can forget about it, tell yourself things will be just fine and start the day off right. It's the same with training and your exercise routine. Tell yourself it's going to hurt...you're absolutely right it will. Tell yourself this is going to make me feel good and I will get in better shape by starting today...you're absolutely right you will. The toughest part of my training, every single time, no matter when it is during the day: getting up and going. Once you get moving, you don't want to stop. I hope you feel that same way with your training.
Good luck and make it a great day, everyday!