I get many compliments for my successful weight loss, even though it’s been a while, nearly a year really. And it’s nice to get them. I worked hard for it, now I’m happy and healthy and I’m glad other people can see that. There’s something though…
I nearly always get this one argument, one that, frankly, is mostly used to justify the person’s laziness. Yes, laziness. The argument is that I’m young and motivated, and so I managed to lose some weight and become healthy.
First of all, it’s not because I’m young. And most importantly, I didn’t “get motivated”, I motivated myself. That may seem the same, but it really is not. And that’s what so many people don’t understand.
Inertia is a power of resisting, by which every body as much as in it lies, continues in its present state, whether it be of rest, or of moving uniformly forwards in a right line. From Wikipedia.
You can’t sit and wait for the motivation to work out to magically appear, it doesn’t work that way. And even if it did, what would you do once the motivation went away and you were tired? Would you just give up on the weight loss? If this is your system and you started out of an impulse of motivation, then you most probably will end up giving up on your weight loss.
What goes for working out, goes for anything. If you want something done, get off your butt and start doing it. Don’t wait, go do it. Whether it is going through with a project, fixing something, learning, studying or writing. You really just have to start.
And if you’re not ready to start yet, that’s okay. Go mentally prepare yourself. But keep in mind that motivation won’t come alone, you really do need to take the first step. And I promise, inertia works both ways around. Once you start and get into what you’re doing and make a routine and an obligation out of it, it will become much easier. This happens even with exercise, really.
I cannot tell you how much this simple notion has helped me. And not just on the working out. It helps me on studying and even for writing here. It’s not all about being young or motivated, I can be pretty lazy too. But it all becomes easier if you stop procrastinating and decide whether you really want to do it or not (whatever “it” is). If you do want to do it, then just start doing it. It’s as simple as that.
So, we have a group blog in our English class. I find that really cool actually, I wish we had more of these things in other classes. Makes them interesting, and easier to meet and get to know other people.
Now, however, I have to write an introduction about myself to be posted there, but I’m out of inspiration. I’m thinking I used it all up on the paper I wrote today, my very first one for college. It wasn’t easy, but I’m confident. Anyway, the presentation’s supposed to be creative and show me as an individual human being. And I’m completely dry for creative ideas that show me as a human being. So I guess I have a problem.
What do I do instead? I write about it on my own blog, of course.
How about an update on my life?
I just had a class dinner with my high school friends the other day. Not many people attended, but it was nice. We got to talk about how things are going and how much we’re enjoying it, or not in some cases. Oh, and I had Carbonara. I didn’t finish it, but still. 600 calories of pure yummy-ness.
Speaking of food. College is making my metabolism crazy. I’m thinking of stopping by the pharmacy and asking for some pills that will calm it down, and speed it up if that’s possible. It’s that the scale has been going up and down between 110 and 114 pounds (50 and 52 kg) for weeks now. It’s crazy, one day it’s at one weight, the next day, in the morning and without eating anything, it’s at a completely different one. I’m not that worried because it ends up going down again, but I really can’t get sloppy on this. Damn scale, I’m watching you!
Other than that, I’m really enjoying college. The classes, well, most classes, are really interesting. And people, well, most people, are really nice. Right, that didn’t sound very convincing. But yeah, I’ll get through it with a smile on my face either way.
Well, I’m going to give that presentation another try… And I still have 20 pages of boredo- I mean, knowledge to read. Wish me luck!
(if case you were wondering by the way: no, that’s not a real word on the title… I think)
Today we had a really interesting discussion on our English class. Although my head was really hurting during most of it, probably because of those 2 hours of sleep I had (I’m guessing I should have had more…), there was something that made me think, forget about the pain and actually intervene in the class.
I honestly don’t remember how the discussion got to that, the throbbing on my head kind of prevented me from paying attention. But I do remember we were talking about art? And then came the question:
Do you think gay people choose to be gay?
Again, no idea how it got to that. I think the teacher was asking random questions or something… But anyway, most people reluctantly said yes.
…wait, what?
You may be thinking I was just too sleepy and lazy to pay attention, but seriously, even my teeth were hurting. There was this pounding on my ears, and my eyes were so sore on the back, I just felt like plucking my fingers in there and massaging the inside of the head. I took a pain killer on the train, but it still hurt. I don’t think anyone noticed though, specially because of the speech that followed the teacher’s question.
I consider myself a very tolerant person. Really, very tolerant person. And I know many people who do themselves as well. But we’re not naive. Homosexuality still means prejudice, being teased, harassed and sometimes even physically harmed. Gays have more chances of developing a depression and committing suicide because of the hostile and condemning environment they are usually surrounded by.
If it were a choice, no one would choose to be gay. I mean, would you? With the actual sexual preferences aside, on one hand there’s the possibility to be considered “normal”, and on the other, being considered a freak and having people mistreat you based on one single characteristic of yours. Yes, well, being considered “normal” would probably be easier.
So why do homosexuals decide to be homosexuals? They don’t.
It’s not a choice, or an illness, or a dysfunction, it just is. As I didn’t choose to be straight, I never even thought of it actually, I suppose it’s the exact same for homosexuals. It just is.
Well. The pain killer end up working its magic, and I got through the day. And what a long day it was. Now I’m here, sucking on a coffee sweet and getting ready for a nap.
I’ll leave you here a little video I’ve had on one of my bookmarks’ folders for ages. It’s about why gay marriage should be illegal, and it’s obviously ridiculing most of the arguments you hear from people who actually believe in that (or else I wouldn’t post it, would I). Really smart, and about time I shared. Enjoy!
Today is Blog Action Day. A day when bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind. In its inaugural year, Blog Action Day will be co-ordinating bloggers to tackle the issue of the environment.
Since this is a personal blog, where I write about pretty much what I feel like writing about, I will approach this subject on the same way, personally.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t do much until a number of years ago. I just thought it was such a drag, separating garbage? Being careful with the water spent? With the electricity? And with really no immediate profit. It all seemed time consuming and worthless to me.
Recently however, things have changed. Maybe if you are now like I was then, and want to change something, you can take my example? Because, seriously, it really doesn’t take much.
In my house hold, we don’t buy the normal lamps anymore. And that really requires no effort from you at all. If you have to go buy lamps either way, instead of going for the incandescent, go for the fluorescent ones. They do last longer and for a difference of around 5€? That’s less than 10 American dollars.
And rechargeable batteries. I like those, and not just because they’re good for the Environment. You see, they’re very good for my wallet as well. The recharger itself was around 25€ (35 US dollars), but I rarely buy normal batteries now, and I’ve had these for almost three years. You’ll be helping the Environment and saving money at the same time.
“Oh, but it’s so annoying, having to recharge the batteries, and having to wait until they are recharged… It’s easier to just buy new ones”. I’ve gotten this argument many times. I can sort of understand that. But rechargeable batteries last a long time, as I said, I’ve had mine for three years. Their “limited lifespan” isn’t that limited. Point is, don’t buy just a pack of four, buy a couple of packs or something, have some free ones you can use at any time. It’s only inconvenient if you let it be.
Now the big topic, recycling. I’ll be honest here, personally, I only recycle paper. Besides the proper separate and colourful recycling bins being far too big for my bedroom, paper is really the only source of garbage I have there. There’s the occasional plastic, but that ends up being mixed with other trash, in a separate bag I have here. I’ll make the commitment to start changing those habits though. Slowly, I’ll start trying to be a bit more aware, and maybe start looking for smaller recycle bins?
These are just some of the simplest things I do. They’re not difficult, most of them don’t even require any actions from you. Just be careful, don’t mix the trash, don’t let the taps running and buy more environment friendly products. None of these things mean less comfort for you and for your daily life, they’re just different habits we should all adopt.
I’ll try being more active from now on, just because. Will you?
