Thoughts on Motivations

So I don't blog as much as I used to. Perhaps I have run out of things to say, or I've said all I had to say. I doubt that, but it is Sunday evening now and things have happened. This blog post, however, will not be about those things, but only feature some photos of what's been up while my thought train thunders down the line.

Slugs from the south. Lovely, lovely critters...

Once a week I would like to blog, perhaps as a recap or about a specific topic. This won't be some thoughtful, insightful, in-front-of-the-fireplace-legs-crossed-with-a-glass-or-brandy-in-a-comfy-chair type of post, but just things I feel like saying. If you're expecting that, well, I guess you should click on "Next Blog". I guess I am not out of things to say afterall.

Running in the humidty and heat. At 630am.

The biggest thing I have to talk about is motivation. Where it comes from, and where it goes, and what to do with it. Please, do not take what I say as advice, but merely accept it as a Lorne brain dump. 

Giant freekin spiders. Sheesh, probably poisonous too... Let's pet it.

I spent 21 or 22 days on the paleo diet lately, I can't really remember. I was perhaps looking for this fountain of youth or a magic pill. But for what? I don't need to lose weight. I don't need hardcore sport performance improvement. I didn't really know what I needed. It probably had something to do with not losing energy and  being able to keep up with my 2 year old son. So I dived in head first and tried it out. I was aiming for 30 days, but that is in fact, just a number. So no wheat, no dairy, no sugar, no processed foods. Food I can catch, hunt or gather. Meat, veggies and fruit, nuts and seeds. It's pretty straightforward and i did really well. One of the first things I noticed was an increase in energy. This was largely due to the fact that I was consuming a low GI / no sugar diet, so no insulin crashes. 

Driving in Georgia. Many many miles of this.

That was the continuing trend for the whole time. No crashes in energy levels and a feel-good feeling throughout. I was highly motivated to make it through, and especially motivated as I was on the road and traveling lots. I wanted to beat the travel odds about eating well while on the road. And I succeeded. For a while, at least. I could eat at pretty much every restaurant, but had to carefully scan the menu for what I needed. And pretty much every restaurant had paleo friendly choices (with clever omissions of certain ingredients). So I remained motivated. But after a while, especially on the road, I tired of eating chicken salads and such, and Trader Joe's GF Beef Jerkey, and nuts, etc.... But I proved it is possible. It's just not my thing though.

South Carolina peaches, nom nom nom.

You see, I am a foodie (self-proclaimed), and I love to try everything. So that became an issue, especially being in a new culinary location. I wanted to try new foods, and since I ran out of reasons to continue eating paleo, I stopped eating paleo. But a new problem arose.

Somewhere in someplace in either South Carolina, North Carolina, or Virginia. I can't remember.

I took the stop-paleo situation as a total dive-bomb into lack-of-motivation land. I don't know what happened, but since then my motivation has not existed. I guess I have to wonder what I am motivating myself to do. Well, perhaps I linked eating paleo to successes in health and fitness. And since I stopped eating paleo, I figured I didn't need to exercise anymore. Well, I know that is not true, since I love to exercise (yes, I do). But what happened is that I did stop exercising, and I lost motivation to do the things I love to do when it comes to exercise. When I stop running cause I don't feel like it, something is up. So what is it? I don't know, but here are the things I would like to do:

-100 pushups in a row. Yes, that is right. 100 straight, strict pushups. I can do about 30 right now. Hmph.

- 5 km run in less than 20 minutes. I've gotten to 20:20 before, and now I am probably around 24 minutes.

- Canadian Death Race (Aug 2013). 127 km of dire agony on my legs. I don't know why I want this one, but I do. 

- 12 strict chinups. I dont' even think I can do one.

The knots of roads while driving into Washington, D.C.

So what am I to do? I bought a day planner to keep myself motivated. That didn't work well, as it has sat empty for the last week. I read about how to do it. That works Lorne, that really works. Eventually you have to do it and stop reading. I guess all I have to do to is start slow. Crawl-walk-run. That's my approach. I think perhaps that my largest problem is I hit the ground running and fall apart quickly. I think I can still run a 20:20 5km or do 50 pushups. I can't, and I don't want to admit that I can't. Pride and ego are getting in the way of progress. They're getting in the way of anything, really. They're killing my motivation. So I guess I know what I have to do. Break down my goals into crawling steps. 

The White House at night.

Next week, I will detail how I break down my goals into achievable steps. I will try to make my blog posts into weekly posts as well, as I think that is good. I've learned a lot about myself just by writing tonight.

Lorne :-)