When we're kids, especially little kids, we are told "no" and "you can't" quite a bit from our parents. I understand parents do this in order to protect their children and set boundaries for them, and I am all for that. But when the work "can't" becomes predominant in some one's vocabulary, then there is a problem. I have been pondering this for the past week and have realized that I have taken the work "can't" to a whole new level. Somewhere along the way I have taken the safe boundaries that my parents set for me to a whole new level, and not in a good way.
Last week I wrote that I went to see my doctor for a check up. During the appointment, she recommended the book The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris to me. Well it just so happened that I had a gift card to a book store, so I decided to check the book out. In the book, the author talks about ways to "transform" your body using methods he and others have used. As I'm reading this book, some of the things make perfect sense and I could see them working for me. But then I read about the low carb diet plan, and the first thing I thought was "I can't do that." Now I have read Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes (which was recommended to me by a friend and is an excellent book) and I understand how carbohydrates work in the body and how they affect weight loss, so it was not the diet that struck me as strange, it was my reaction. I automatically shot down the idea of me trying the diet to see if it worked and I'm not sure why I did. So I started thinking of other things I've told myself I couldn't do. I once told myself I couldn't run because of my weight, that it would be too hard on my body, but then I decided to try the couch to 5K app for my phone (after reading some friends' posts about it on FB). Well, I can run. In fact, yesterday, I ran for 5 minutes straight without feeling like I was going to lose a lung. I also use to say "I can't cook" but I've recently started cooking more meals and have found that, not only do I enjoy it, but I'm actually not that bad at it.
So, why can't I try this diet? It's not an unhealthy diet, it just restricts the intake of certain carbs and it is set up where you can have one day off to eat what you want. Certainly something that I could probably handle. So why was I so quick to say "I can't"? Maybe what I was really saying "I can't" to is the idea of being successful at losing weight. Interesting thought (and one I will explore in a future blog).
I stayed the same this week, but I did decide to start tracking my measurements along with my weight loss so that I have more than just the scale to track my success. I lost 2 inches in my waist and 1/2 inch in my arms, and everything else stayed the same. Not too bad, but definitely time to shake things up.
That's all for this week. Tune in next week to read about what other strange and interesting things that travel through my mind (although I won't dig too deep because that could be kind of scary)... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment