Getting on and Doing It

“Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do. The successful people don’t always like these things themselves; they just get on and do them.” Author Unknown

I don’t remember how I came across this quote recently. But substitute “fit” for “successful,” and I finally have a response to several comments I’ve heard consistently over the years, purely out of the blue:

It must be nice to eat whatever you want.

Well, I could never look like you.

Oh please, like it matters for you.

I’m usually caught too off-guard to respond at the time. But I’ve decided to address these comments with some myth-dispelling and sincere, positive, hopefully helpful tips. Because it’s not genetic magic, it’s not vanity, and it’s not any big secret. Being healthy is a passion, a value, a priority, a mental necessity and a lot of hard work.

First, no one can eat whatever she wants. I don’t. Regular readers will remember when I had my metabolism tested at Lutheran Hospital for a previous column, and I learned I can only eat 1290 calories per day—even on days when I work out—if I want to maintain my weight. If I want to lose a few pounds, I must eat less. If I eat more, I gain. We’re all in the same boat.

Count your calories—all of them. I keep a log of every bite that goes into my mouth on weekdays—including sticks of gum (Extra Polar Ice, 5 calories). Flip through years’ worth of my day planners to see what I ate on a Tuesday in September of 2005. I look up the calories of the things I put into my salad, and I count out cherry tomatoes and baby carrot sticks (7 baby carrots, 35 calories). I use measuring cups and a kitchen scale.

Beyond my kitchen, I read calorie counts on online menus before I go out. I avoid going out to dinner on weeknights. I avoid alcohol during the week. I count that little piece of broken cookie I ate off the plate in the break room. Every calorie counts; it’s always surprising when you add them up.

Exercise most days of the week, even when you don’t feel like it. I go to the YMCA after work every day, even when I am tired, even when it is cold, even when I think I might be coming down with something, even when I don’t feel like it. Like everyone else, I don’t have huge chunks of time, so I break it up—every morning, I do sit-ups beside my bed as soon as I wake up, along with leg lifts or pushups.

I exercise even on vacation. I have gone running all over the world. I pack workout clothes and use the hotel gym. I pack a bathing suit and jog in the hotel swimming pool. And you know, it’s not the worst part of my trip. Going for a run is a wonderful way to see a new place. Exercising helps undo the sluggishness of a bad diet or a long plane ride.

You do have the time. I work full time. I freelance part-time. I maintain a house. I am a single mother. I work out and eat healthy. Sometimes it’s not a lot; if I have just 15 minutes in which to work out, I run 1.5 miles. I figure something is better than nothing.

I share my lifestyle with my daughter. She’s old enough now to run or walk with me and to join me at the gym; in fact, she just finished her first 5K this fall. When she was little, I only went to gyms that had child care. If I couldn’t get to the gym, we would dance fast and silly in the living room.

It does matter. I wish I were a person who could eat whatever she wants and never work out and still be slim and strong and feel great. But I don’t know anyone who can do that. True story: I maintained the same body-fat composition for five years—I had it measured in the same way, at the same place, under the same conditions every six months. Then my life fell apart, I didn’t get to the gym, I didn’t eat well, and my body fat increased by 5 percentage points in six months.

I wasn’t worried about the fact that my pants didn’t fit as much as I worried about the fact that my body was so far out of whack from what was normal for me. I worried that I had lost the strength for which I had worked so hard. I worried that an important part of my self-identity—that of a strong, healthy, positive person—was slipping away. I have been eating this way and exercising this way since college. Missing a week is a big deal.

Just as anyone who has done something they love forever—playing in a band, taking part in a bowling league—I missed my friends at the gym. I missed the relief that working out provided from stress. I missed the essence of me that is motivated and dedicated and feels calm and positive and optimistic when I eat super-healthy foods that nourish my body after I’ve pushed it to its limits.

Eating right and working out is not vanity. And being in shape is not easy. I make a choice every day—many times a day—to “get on and do them,” as the quote says.

I don’t judge others, either, for the choices they make, or the things they do or don’t do. I write this column out of love for a subject I study voraciously, and out of a sincere desire to share with others the awesomeness that I’ve experienced from vegetables and a workout schedule.

If you choose to go home rather than go for a run; if you choose to eat spaghetti rather than spaghetti squash; if your choices are different than mine, I would never volunteer a word—in fact, I likely would not notice!

But if you ever want to ask, I would be happy to share my learning, my passion, my enthusiasm, my grocery list, my weight bench! In fact, I am studying and testing to be a certified fitness instructor; if I pass this fall, I hope to teach young people the basics of safe, lifelong cardiovascular and resistance training techniques. I would be thrilled to help anyone who asks develop the passion and the well-being I’ve found.

Sure, you’ll see me eating an ice cream cone on the weekends (maybe two) or having a glass of wine (maybe two). And parent-teacher conferences after work plus some serious seventh-grade homework might make working out impossible some days. I do have a life. I just try to make healthy choices a major part of it.

As the quote says, I don’t always like these things myself. It can be hard. But it’s just a matter of establishing the habit. If there is any secret, it is this: The feeling of well-being is worth it.