The Most Insidious Enemy

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

Benjamin Franklin

Well, summer is nearing it's end. I'm back to school in *gulp* less than 2 weeks. It's been a wonderful summer. I've finally convince my husband to take me on as a trainee (not sure what I was more persistent in-- the workouts or the persuading). So what has followed has been a strange and mysterious journey for me. You see, I'm a planner. By Monday, I like to have my entire week of workouts planned-- which days I'm running, which days I'm lifting in the gym vs. at home, and which body parts on what days. This summer has been filled with my scheduled (yeah!) morning runs or bikes and then the afternoon where I just show up at the gym, ready(?) to do whatever he tells me to. There have been days, like last Friday, where I showed up only to discover that it was leg day-- after I had done mile repeats. And I did it. And I didn't die.

Along with learning that I can do a leg day and a hard run on the same day, I've also learned that I've got a big problem: an enemy that seems to follow me no matter how much I try to shake it; no matter how much I've denied that it existed. This foe creeps in and secretly is trying to destroy every gain that I would try to make. I've been in denial. My husband has insisted on NOT training me for months, claiming that I complain too much, that I make excuses instead of just doing the work.

He's right. And I'm astounded at the amount of excuses I use. But they are sneaky little excuses-- not big ones, like, "I can't workout today because..." No. Those would be easy to spot and expel. My excuses are more like, "I didn't run faster because I took a week off." (That week off was a month ago!)  or "Didn't we just do this exercise for the last workout? I better do something else." or "I shouldn't do legs today because I have a long run tomorrow."

All this time I've thought I was putting out maximum effort, working to the best of my ability. In the past weeks I've made some bigger than I thought possible lifts... all because I've shifted to just keeping my mouth shut and doing work. Like most things, this change in thinking is taking time. I'm becoming more aware of the "buts" and "nots."

Some fun I had with excuses for the Under Armour "What's Beautiful" Challenge.