John 8:32 "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." NIV

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Attitudes

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

I recently came across the quote above and fell in love. Yes. It was perfect. It completely described who I am.... most of the time.

Since my weight loss and my increased speed/endurance, I have a new found confidence. I have to admit it makes me feel high. VERY high. I smile from ear to ear, most days. I talk every one's ear off (okay, I think I did this before too, but it was more obnoxious). 95% of my conversations have something to do with training/running/triathlons/races or Kiera/Brock. And for those around me who are interested in those topics are typically just as excited to be in conversation with me. The athletes are sharing stories, training woes, or discussing our next race strategy. Those around me who are not interested in those two topics still find me obnoxious.

People who haven't seen me in a while (which was pretty cool the first week back to school) take double takes and then go into this spiel about how good I look. I cannot lie; I do *enjoy* basking in this. One parent said, "Wow, Jen. You look great. You were so fat before... but now... WOW!" No, English was not their first language so culturally this was okay for her to say... but it was the truth. For the record, my highest weight on the scale was 211. And it was 3 years after the birth of my last son. I had no excuses. "I finally feel like the person on the outside, who I have always been on the inside," are typically my parting words in these conversations.

I was given an AMAZING gift to participate in the Healthy Challenge (like biggest loser, but on the local county level). But to tell you the truth that was only 25% of it - and yes... an AWESOME 25%. I had to change my attitude. If I always looked at the glass half empty, then it would always look half empty.

I believe it is about attitude. Those weeks during the competition, when I wasn't seeing the results, my fear of gaining weight was so bad... that I ended up not performing. It took my twin sister to set me straight... and do you know what? The next week I came back like a champion (remember, I won by only .06% over the guy, still the only woman to win in 7 yrs). Same thing goes for races, ask TG. For those races that I have negative thoughts about during the race, I tend to psych myself out and fail. Our most recent race together, TG literally removed my Garmin from my wrist while we were running because I was getting so disappointed by my pace that I was defeating myself mentally. Guess what, when I couldn't see my pace, I actually listened more to my body and finished strong.

We need to train our minds as much as we are training our bodies... and the book that I am just about finished may argue that we should be training our minds even more (review coming soon). And as I am learning to look at the positives, what tricks do you have to offer me/others?

4 comments:

RunningFromCancer said...

Jen - I SOOOOO agree with you regarding Attitude. After my cancer diagnosis - I so changed my attitude. I wasn't a negative person - but at times I would complain too much. It is so easy to fall into that trap - complaining about how things aren't fair - how things should get changed - waiting for someone else to do something to change things!
But no more. I know it is a corny saying - But life is too short! Enjoy each moment. If you want something changed - change your attitude first after all, the only person we really have control over is ourselves.
Enjoy your life
Enjoy your surroundings
Enjoy each moment

Rose (Hacker Half Marathon) said...

This is so true! Good for you and keep it going!

Unknown said...

The best way i can keep my attitude positive is to look for the FUN in things. :-)

kimert said...

Attitude is everything. Great post! Thanks for sharing. :)