How to be a Quitter

Yes Boys and Girls, todays talk is about how to be a quitter.
You see, I'm an expert at it, always have been. As a kid I quit piano, ballet, netball... the list goes on. I just don't seem to have that that inner spark that says when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Today I was doing parkrun and I quit. I hurt my hip halfway through and rather than saying "ok, won't be a best time, I'm in a bit of pain, but I can walk to the end"... yeah rather than that...I quit.

And it started me thinking...why am I so good at quitting?  What is it about me that chooses to give up, rather than battling through when things get hard?  I mean I know I can persevere... I was in far more pain during the Mothers Day classic 8km, and I kept going. I think maybe it hinges on how much I have invested... I mean I paid to enter the Mothers Day Classic, and I had my family at the finish line cheering me on... I had to finish. Today, ParkRun is free, my daughter was running with me (and way ahead) and really the only one I was letting down was me... so I did.  

And there we have it.  I won't let other people down, but I will let myself down time and time again.  Why do I not have the self worth to not want to let myself down?

Looking at my three children, I have two that are like me... will look for any excuse, find the easy way out, give up when it gets hard, ... and I have one who is self motivated, hardworking, and won't quit - even when she wants to.  She must take after her father.  
I don't know if Quitting is genetic (I can't find any evidence to support that it is - and I spent a whole 4 mins googling it before I quit searching) or if a quitters mentality comes from environmental factors... You know, Shit happens when you are a kid, that makes you not have belief in yourself, and because you don't have that self worth, you don't think you are worth that extra commitment, you let yourself down so you can say ...see I am worthless after all!  

I think its a bit of both.

So we have established that I am very good at quitting, however events of the past year have also proven that I can do more than I ever thought I could.  It appears that unbeknownst to me, I have slowly been making deposits into my Self Worth Bank, and I have discovered that maybe, just maybe, I don't want to let myself down any more.  Maybe I want to quit quitting.

Quitting, or being a quitter, has such a negative connotation, but as addicts know, sometimes quitting is the hard thing to do.
I was a smoker once, years ago, not for very long compared to alot of smokers I know, but I was smoking enough for it to be a problem... and then I quit.
I quit easy. It was easy because I had a reason to, a reason that I wanted more than I wanted to smoke.  That reason was singing. I had been asked to join a band, and I knew that I couldn't get through a night of singing and dancing in the audience without losing my voice, so I needed to make sure I had a voice. I came down to singing or smoking, I chose singing. End of story.

So quitting can be a good thing, and seeing as I am an expert at it, I am going on a quitting spree.

With the help of Google, and my supporters, I am going to find out how to be a quitter, find out tips and strategies on how to quit effectively, and I am going to quit the following things :

• Quitting
• Making Excuses
• Sugar
• Soft Drink
• Feeling sorry for myself

... BECAUSE WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING!  and I have decided that I am tough enough... after all I plan to do Tough Mudder next year, can't get any tougher than that.

I found an exercise to start with http://www.yournewblueprint.com/Roland/kick-the-quitter-out-your-life/

and I am writing a letter to my quitter inside, and kicking her butt to the kerb.

I am going to 'invest' in a quit sugar book and start on the quest today!

Accountable

So I have to show you how I am I doing on my small changes that I blogged about a few days ago.

Yesterday and today I have had a good nutritious breakfast BEFORE leaving for work.  I have drunk 3 litres of water a day (... and needed to pee every hour!!) and I went for a run yesterday morning! - Here comes the accountable bit ... I DIDN'T run this morning.. in my defense... oh alright!... my pathetic excuse was that I had a really bad nights sleep.
HOWEVER in addition to that I did do a 2 hour Kickboxing class last night, including 50.. YES 50! throw downs (in a row without stopping, but including a excruciating cry of pain during the last 3).

I have also been 'swapping' the lift for the stairs at work. 6 flights, and it doesn't matter how often I do it, the first three flights are "pfft, easy", and the burn starts on the transition between 3 and 4, and by the 6th I'm dying.

A Healthy Lunch

2 of these a day!

The stairs to my office

I recorded a little message while running ... If you can't understand me it's cos I was whispering so the other walkers didn't think I was talking to myself! LOL.  I said "I'm up, I'm running, I'm doing it" , "Check out this beautiful view" and "See ya"

Heading out to Park Run in the morning, knowing that my personal best time is not at risk of being set, but I'm going to do the best I can. Also planning a trip to the farmers market on Sunday, and some bulk cooking to prep some healthy meals for the week ahead. 

As of this morning I weighed 80.4.... SOOOOOO NOT impressed to see that 8 again.  Weigh in Wednesday, lets see if I can get that 7 back.

Also found a link on Facebook today, that intrigues scares the hell out of me... 

What do you think?? 

Oh and we signed up to do it again...jump through fire, crawl through mud etc

All going well, I will have some time to blog again tomorrow!  See you then.

Week 8 - Mini Milestone Park Run

Week 8 of 12... week 8 means -

• Redo the Fitness Test
• Retake the 'measurements'
• Do another mini milestone.

MINI MILESTONE
My second mini milestone was to do a 5km run..without stopping, and as you know I completed that last weekend....but once you start, you gotta keep going, right?

So, my friend Sandra and I tried out Park Run this morning, and I have decided that it is one of the coolest things on the coast.... and I'm going to try and do it every week in my build up to doing 10 kms in the Gold Coast marathon.

A 5km timed run, every Saturday at 7am, for free. Run by volunteers, assisted by the council, and the course is beautiful beach front, and paths through the dunes and trees.  Below is a video showing the course we ran this morning... Yep thats right RAN! When you watch the video it seems quite a distance.

It's worldwide, so there could be a location near you... if not, why not enquire about starting one?


By 1pm, I had an email with my time, and placing in the field, and considering that official 'fun runs' have a registration fee of between $30 - $45 each time, this free weekly community run is just awesome.  It happened to be ParkRun's first birthday, so there was an extra big turn out of 196 people.

FITNESS TEST 
Since the start of the 12WBT, my fitness has improved in the following ways:

• 1km time trial  -  Day 1 = 8 min 2 sec, Now = 6min 1 sec
• Push ups (on knees) - Day 1 = 31 in 1 minute, Now = 65 in 1 minute
• Push ups (on toes) - Day 1 = 0, Now = 12
• Abdominal strength* - Day 1 = level 2, Now = level 3
• Wall Sit - Day 1 = 38 seconds, Now = 1m 27 seconds
• Sit and Reach - Day 1 = -5cm, Now +2 cm.

MEASUREMENTS
I have lost a total of 32.5 cm off my body since 8 weeks ago! WOW.
7cm off the hips, and 6 cm off the waist... no wonder my old pants fall down now.

So with weigh-in in 4 days, I am super excited. I have my eyes on the prize (of being in the 70's) and a Super Saturday  Session today, burning at least 1050 calories (not counting doing my fitness test or walking the stairs in wet n wild) has got me set up to win.  Another exciting day tomorrow, and an Accelerator day planned for Tuesday... I AM going to nail this.