Good morning world! I’ve been doing Noom (a weight loss program based on psychology and calorie counting) for three weeks now and I’ve lost weight, 182 to 178. I’ve also started exercising, doing various dance workouts I can watch on YouTube and I bought access to an older Zumba program for about US$10.
My goal is to be down 40 pounds by the end of the year. We’ll see if that happens, but heck anything is good for me right now.
Thanks to utterly incompetent gym/physical education teachers in elementary school, high school and college, I have to surmount the hate they instilled in me for exercise. They never taught *how* to do exercise or sports, and if I wasn’t good to begin with, they had no use for you at all. I was just a problem for them that they simply were too lazy or incompetent to deal with. The art teachers did much the same, too lazy to teach how to draw, how to think like an artist, etc.
I was very uncoordinated as a kid. I was put in a special class for learning coordination. That was hard since I was very smart for my age (reading at a 6th grade level in 2nd grade), but my physical skills were a bit delayed. So, I was the “other” in so many ways. I also simply would rather read a book than jump rope, and ooooh that was just not “normal”.
The President’s Council on Physical Fitness didn’t help either, with its idiotic “tests” on how well kids could do broad jumps, jumping jacks, etc.
So, years later, my husband taught me *how* to throw and gee, I’m not bad at it! I had to learn that damn few can do a 30 minute aerobics routine at the beginning, and after an exertion induced headache that knocked me to my knees and made me sure I was dying, I learned that I have to slowly build up to that.
I still do hate that ignorance and laziness from teachers that I trusted to know what they were doing. It held me back for decades. Happily, I’m now an artist, getting paid for my work, and now I’m working on being as physically able as I am mentally.
Try things even if you are sure you “aren’t any good”. This helps cast off the shackles put on you by others who weren’t worth the time or respect you gave them.
Club Schadenfreude 
Stick with it! I’m cheering for you.
Our education system seems to be designed to pump as many as you can through, and if a few fall through the cracks so be it.
I can remember in Phys Ed that if you didn’t pick up on the exercise simply by watching the other kids do it, no one took the time to help them figure it out, unless it was barking an order to suck it up and get it right.
I also remember doing the fitness test thing. I got through it all without much trouble. The 600 yard run was rough, but many of the athletic types pushed it to a mile. I did too, but wasn’t as fast as they were. We had to do a rope climb too, it was no short distance up either, must have been 25- 30 feet. However tall the gym rafters were, is how high we went, it was an indoor basketball court… When you are in, I don’t remember now, sixth or seventh grade, 25-30 feet up is a long damn way. I managed. But being a semi fit boy, there was always a spirit of competiveness that helped form alliances and the desire to get through it. I don’t remember it badly, it was a teaching experience for me, that I could do these things if I pushed myself to do it. It was a confidence booster.
But I also saw the kids who just were not physically fit enough, or coordinated enough, by no fault of their own, that it was a demeaning experience for them. I never felt good about that…
Fast forward to now, I’m barely able to jog any further than 2-3 tenths of a mile at one time, but I can get a half mile in through the day. I have a routine with walking the dogs. But I can feel myself getting better, the muscles slowly remembering whats it’s like, and it’s getting easier. I don’t have a goal really, but I know it’s wise to retain some form of fit, as I’m sure as hell not getting any younger.
Anyway, like I said, stick with it. Shoot for your goal, then blow past it when you get there!
Also, being able to actually make money from an art passion is awesome. Not many achieve that. I have managed to get paid playing music in a few cover bands here and there, but that’s different than forging your own path and being successful.
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thanks, Shell. I posted about this to keep myself accountable. š
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I’ve been doing Noom for a while now. (I’m close to becoming a #NoomMaster) I have lost much weight but there are invaluable #PsychTricks in there. My issue is I have mental health issues and one time of feeling overwhelm and it messed up my rhythm. The difference is I won’t let myself feel guilty or shame because of it. Just dust myself off and try again.
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I am in my 4th week. I have anxiety issues so that is a hurdle. like you, I am happy with that “oh well”. š
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The “Oh, well” statement is the best #psychtip So simple and applicable to all aspects of life.
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