Become a Discipline Disciple!

Before I start this post, let me just say a few things.

1. Happy New Year! May 2010 have you being a butt-kicker again!


2. Estella Getty is the only member of this blog not yet 30.

Just yesterday or the day before, I told Estella that I had had two blog ideas floating around for a while. This post is neither of those.

As I read Facebook status messages over the last week (yes, I am an addict), I read a LOT of posts about New Year's resolutions. I could not help mentally betting on whose resolutions wouldn't last the month, let alone the week (or even day!).

Since I began losing my weight and kept it off for the past 3.5 years, many people have said the following things to me:

1. You're so disciplined!


2. I'm so impressed by how disciplined you are!


3. It must be so hard to be so disciplined!


4. I could never be so disciplined!

I always found this funny (not in the ha ha way) because being disciplined is not hard at all. It's not hard because I (or you) am the only one who's responsible for it. No one else can affect it. The only factor in being disciplined is my (or your) mind.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying being disciplined is fun, but there's a huge difference between something that's easy and something that's fun. Having discipline is easy.

All I had to do was make up my mind to do something, and I did it.

Way back when, I decided that I was going to exercise three times a week. Sure, sometimes I wanted to nap instead of exercise, but I told myself I was supposed to do it, and I did it.

Then I decided that I was going to eat 1600 calories every weekday. Sure, sometimes I wanted to bury my head in a pie, but I told myself I was going to do it, and I did it.

Next I said that I was going to eat 1600 calories every day for 40 days. There was probably one or two days where I envied a cow their cud, but I had promised myself that I would do it, and I did it.

I said I'd exercise five times a week, I said I'd do this, I said I'd do that... All of it I accomplished because I said I would. Sure, sometimes I fail (like I told myself I'd only splurge 4 days over my long Christmas break -- oops!). But the reason I failed is because I never really wanted to succeed in the first place.

That's what it takes to have discipline. You have to want to have it. You have to commit to have it. And that's not hard at all. We all commit to things all the time (work, watching Top Chef every week, meeting the girls on Friday nights). We just punk out when those things aren't so fun, and then we blame it on our inability to have discipline.

If you've made a resolution you want to keep, acknowlege to yourself that you have the ability to accomplish it if you want to. Then ask yourself, do you really want to? Be honest and move on, either with or without that resolution.

I can tell you from experience that even though discipline isn't fun, the end result is. I still remember the time I went to a wedding and someone complimented me on my dress and said, "If I had a body like you..."

Now that was fun!

:-)Natalie

This is a picture from that wedding (and a pic of the hubbs, too!).