Stay Hungry

I've been seeing a lot of posting about goals for '07 and many of them revolve around weight. How to lose weight. What happens if I lose the weight. Why it's so hard to lose weight. Folks, it's time to embrace the weight. Relish in it. Be the weight. Feel the weight.

OK, not! I want to lose this inner tube as much as the next guy and gal. I ran my first 1/2 at 244 in November, and on Monday I tipped the scales at 258 - good grief!!!! I've been putting in these 10 hr weeks and still put on 14 lbs over the silly season. What is up with that? I'll tell you - cookies, brownies, chocolate, sweets, coke, beer, repeat. Add to all that ginormous portions at every meal, and I can truly say that I let myself go.

I have a skinny friend and athlete that told me a long time ago that the key for him was to "stay hungry". Stay hungry. Not an easy thing to do - but it's a feeling you can get used to. I'm not talking about Ethiopia hungry - it's just a mild hunger. Persistent - it almost gets satisfied at a meal. I started down this path again on Monday - and I'm embracing the hunger - it's going to become comforting. I'll know that when I'm feeling a little hungry, I'm probably burning off a few fat cells. I was hungry when I started my run last night, and was even hungrier when I sat down to dinner afterward. Good stuff.

Yea, I need to stop with the sweets. I've been soda and sweet-tea free since the 1st. No candy bars since the 1st. I've stopped going in for seconds ("he's going in!!!"). The mental key with the physical chaser is the reminder - the Mantra - to "Stay Hungry". Of course the adage works for many things in life. We can become complacent with work, family, friends, house, and even our physical performance or levels of success. We can become complacent with life. We get comfortable - its like that constant feeling of being full - having a full belly. It's a great feeling, but it really doesn't lead to anything good.

Staying Hungry always meant to me to be constantly looking to improve - even if you were doing good to start with. I'm going to stay hungry this season - this year. I'm going to be uncomfortable for a while - I'll work harder, train harder and live harder than I have in the past ("living harder" is my way of not getting sappy about relationships...). I'll be looking for that feeling - that hungry feeling - and when I don't feel it, than I'll know I'm not trying hard enough - I'm getting too comfortable again - and it's time, then to start up the mantra, "Stay Hungry"...."Stay Hungry".