This week, it seems that my head is just filled with all sorts of thoughts competing for attention. Those long walks/runs in the morning give me a little time with my thoughts as well as my body, and I think somewhere in there, some of my brain got turned on along with my metabolism.
I was reading a blurb in Shape Magazine the other day that had some interesting news. According to a recent study, it will require more effort to lose weight if you miss exercising for a few days. In other words, if you were able to lose weight steadily by hoping on the treadmill for 20 minutes a day, if you miss a few days of exercising, it would then take 25 minutes on the treadmill every day to lose the same amount of weight. Now there is a motivation to work out at least once every other day, isn’t it? Even if you have to reduce the amount of time you work out or break it up into two or three sessions during the day, it is important to get it in.
The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday. Boiling mad about an ongoing issue that I am facing, I threw on some sneakers and took an angry power walk down to the neighborhood pond. Perhaps my intention was that the calm water and the waterfowl might have an effect on my mood and offer a way to de-stress. I don’t know. However, by the time I practically sprinted down to the pond, I found that most of my anger had dissipated, and I was already thinking more clearly. That is when it hit me. I unconsciously adopted physical exercise as a stress reliever. Instead of grabbing a bit of mind-numbing chocolate or television, my instinct was to move. Yeah, me.
My last thought for the week concerns the power of intention. Pam touched on this in her recent blog post about sabotaging thoughts. Rather than facing a hill and saying, “oh, this is going to be hard,” it is so much better to face it positively. Instead of thinking about “I need to lose 10 pounds,” it is much better to think, “I intend to live a healthy lifestyle and will be do everything I can to reach my ideal weight.” I think we are more apt to keep encouraged by such thoughts, as well as sending out our intention.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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