Motivating factors

It's amazing how a warm, sunny day can lighten a person's disposition. It's either that or getting exposed to too much reality TV last night and realizing I have a pretty normal life.

I found myself flipping channels while folding laundry. Just about everything was reality-based programming: American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, The Biggest Loser. All on at the same time. I don't know much about who's in the running for the singing and dancing shows, so when I saw that it was the season finale for The Biggest Loser, I stopped channel surfing to check it out.

I needed that show to inspire me more than anything else. The winner, apparently a big deal because she was the first female winner, had lost half her body weight in this competition. Remember how I mentioned we had our Biggest Loser contest locally this winter? That success story definitely was not the case with me. I ended up finishing where I started.

Remember I thought I could do it on my own? I couldn't. I've made more progress in the past week because I now have a network of 4 or 5 friends who are all on the same mission to get off our butts before our butts are too big to get out of the chair! One will say, let's go to the fitness center. Another will want to go running. A couple of us do this new aerobics class called Zumba, too. Now that's fun. After all the exercise videos I have put myself through in my life, I thought I was coordinated. One Zumba class put me in my place. But I am catching on to the sexy samba-like dance class. We sweat. We hurt. But it's so fun, you don't notice.

Sometimes it's just easier to suffer, I mean stay motivated, in a group. With a support network. With friends who won't say, "I'd walk a mile in your shoes," but instead say, "I'm walking a mile and you're coming with me!" That's what friends are for, right?!