Mind Over Matter

This journey is a struggle. No one said it was going to be easy and I didn't expect it to. But it is beyond hard when you have outside stressors to deal with.

I am a college student, I have hours of work packed on me at any given day but at the same time I have to find a moment or two to take for myself. Creating a workout schedule was helpful in that sense, because when I wake up, I see what exercise I have to do that day and it gives me something to look forward to no matter how much work I have on me.

I have relatives who aren't in the best of health (whether in remission from cancer, suffering from Crohn's or suffering from severe asthma) and I know that in a moment they could be taken from me. At times when that crosses my mind, junk foods used to be the way that I would cope. I would eat a bowl of ice cream, eat anywhere between 4 to 6 Oreo's. There just wasn't a limit to what I would and wouldn't do when it came to food. Now, I replace those food cravings with exercise. When I think "in a moment their lives may end", I immediately back that thought up with "I'm going to make sure I do my best to make them proud of me while they are here".

Some may see it is an issue of mind over matter. You do have to be a strong person to handle what is thrown at you and when I have things thrown at me, I try to stay strong for those around me but behind closed doors I am the weakest person there is.

The same can be said on a weight loss journey. It seems so easy to eat more fruits and vegetables, eat less carbs, drink more water; but it is an issue of mind over matter. You have to get your mind right and everything else that matters will soon fall into place.

It has taken me almost 6 months to be able to drink an entire CamelBak bottle in one day. It's not that water consumption didn't matter to me, my mind just wasn't ready to accept that my body needed more water than it was getting.

I tell myself I am going to avoid sweets but that hasn't happened yet. Why? My mind isn't read for it to happen. The same goes with carbs, I went a day with no carbs then told myself I was going to eat low carb. Prime example. My mind was telling me that my body wasn't ready to abandon carbs all together and my mind was right.

Eating right, exercising, feeling good about yourself, etc. are all issues of mind over matter. They do matter to you, just as they matter to me, but your mind (and mine) has to be in the right state before everything can fall into place.