The alarming absence of exercise in any shape or form, heightened by the “Oh Sweetie” directed at me and my alarmingly tight jeans as I debit yet another not so sustaining, library snack, are the wake up calls I need to at least ponder change. Now that Thanksgiving has added hot pumpkin pie to the guilt of not so exemplary behaviour, the time has come to show some thanks to the McGill Gym and pay it a long awaited visit.
I’m not one to preach to the masses. Whilst a self proclaimed weight loss know it all, who has studied every glossy magazine spread that promises “30 days is all it takes,” I, like a surprising majority of ‘Agony Aunts’ out there, haven’t taken much of my own wisdom to heart. I’m a college student after all—how might I ask, do I squeeze in a social life, cracking a 400 level class, attempting something close to beauty sleep, and now exercise?
Alas collegiettes™, the excuses won’t cut it anymore. The cyber space equivalent of putting pen to paper is happening here, not to regurgitate the endless science behind weight loss, but to inspire you to come up with a ‘let’s get real and do it once and for all plan’, a pep talk of sorts if you will. In case the endless joys of a healthy balanced lifestyle aren’t enough of a motivation, surely you remember, however vague it might be, the added bonus of post workout ‘happy highs.’
The magic equation behind weight loss seems simple enough: exercise, eat healthy, exercise, eat healthy. It is the perseverance that gets you up the hill, more like mountain, to the gym in that fifty-minute schedule gap between POLI 244 and ECON 230 that happens to be the difficult part. It is ordering plain coffee, and not switching last second to a whopper Starbucks Java Chocolate Chip Frappuccino, that proves challenging. I suggest a pre-journey ritual of sorts, in case you were on the look out for an excuse to justify some ‘me time.’
I could list the benefits of dragging a friend to the gym, of signing up for a class to reduce the likelihood of you quitting halfway, of switching up your workout, but if you don’t know why you’re doing this, you won’t last. Figure out what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and come up with a realistic plan tailored to you, and you alone. In a Utopian perfection you’d thrive off perfecting yogic poses. The fact is, your reality, all the more interesting because of it, doesn’t consist of adhering to a strict, intimidating, never stray from, set of do’s and don’ts. That’s okay though. The point of being healthy is to exploit every opportunity life presents you with, and to live it to the fullest.