Little bit of cardio soul searching

Original Post: 6-17-2008

While doing cardio, this morning (anyone who knows me is fully aware of this significance, but for my new friends: I HATE mornings) before I ate (another obstacle) I tried to think about all the things I have learned since I began competiting. My mind was blank. I choose to attribute this minor detail to my dieting and not my relentless aging. However, with some effort I began to remember just who I was before years of dieting and training. And because of the lifestyle changes I experience year to year and month to month, I have learned about myself, and life for that matter, faster than most. Perhaps the two most influential lessons have been 1) the world is NOT out to get me (I’m just not that important); 2) how I choose to respond to a situation is a direct reflection of me and not the situation I am in. Learning these lessons, and more importantly implementing them into my day to day living, has saved some relationships and broken others. Having learned this about myself, I have learned it about others.  And as a result my ‘victim’ friends are no longer people I choose to surround myself with. I learned if I am going to live a positive life I must surround myself with positive people. Learning these has changed (not to be confused with entirely fixed) my potential to respond negatively to situations. Dieting has a tendency to make one notice a lot of negative and seemingly annoying things. My friends and family, bless them all, can testify that in the beginning I was not pleasant to be around when focusing on the negative and annoying. However, much to their and my relief, I have begun to focus instead on my reaction.  This little shift in attention has not only made it easier to be around me but it makes it easer to be around myself. I have begun to welcome the dieting cycle into my life and have stopped using it as a crutch for unhappiness.  The one area I have not been successful in applying these two principles is morning cardio. I think that may just be the exception! Haha, anyway, I digress…I hope that these lessons will be something I can pass on to my friends and loved ones and that your life too will benefit from these lessons.