I tried cold turkey! I tried the patch! I tried nicotine chewing gum, hypnosis, tapering off, switching brands, you name it! Sometimes I would succeed for a day or a week or even several months. But always I would go back to smoking and make up for lost time with a vengeance.
It got so people would roll their eyes or change the subject whenever I brought up my latest effort to quit smoking. I myself was embarrassed by how many times I had tried and failed.
Finally, one day, it happened! I tried again and this time I succeeded. I haven't smoked in over a decade! What if I had given up after the umpteenth attempt to quit? What if I had let the shame and regret of past failed attempts dissuade me from trying again? What if I had let the negative opinions of others rule my life?
I MUST have this same attitude about weight loss and fitness! Maybe it'll be the 900th attempt to lose that everything is gonna "click," and I'll be ready -- body, mind and spirit, to see this through to the end.
Have I tried and failed numerous times in the past to lose weight? Hell yeah! Am I going to let that stop me from trying again? Fuck no!! This could be it. This could be the beginning of a whole new life right now. This could be that time, as with the cigarette smoking, that I finally succeed. But I won't know unless I try!
In the movie TERMINATOR II, "Arnie," as the terminator, said to the John Connor character, "Anger is more useful than despair." I am sure this is true with weight loss. If we can develop a "fuck you" attitude toward the fat and not want to let it beat us, that will likely get us farther than sitting around being depressed about our size and weakened by our focus on past failures.
I want this to be the time that I succeed. I want this to be the time that, ten years from now, I look back and say, "Good thing I didn't give up before I finally found my way."
I am psyching myself up to kick ass!
