You can lead a bull to the china shop, but you can’t make him drink

I suppose people might wonder where that title came from. I started thinking it was time to “Grab the bull by the horns” with regard to my many weight, health, and exercise issues. That, in turn, led to a mental picture of that bull stomping around a china shop. And from there, the horse you can’t force to drink, swapped for a bull because that’s where I started. So I’m the bull (in case you were wondering) in this little vignette. The china shop represents all of the zillions of things I’ve spent 100′s of gazillions of dollars on to help with weight loss. I have a top-rated, very expensive treadmill that doesn’t get used enough, more than many exercise DVDs, dumbbells, barbell w/ plate weights, Wii w/ Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, and several other workout related Wii games, three different steps to go with the step aerobic workouts, risers to be able to use the step as a weight bench, and have also bought and given away or sold more pieces of exercise equipment than I’d need to open my own store! On top of this, the countless dollars paid to weight loss businesses, predominantly Weight Watchers, but also Jenny Craig and a host of others. And let’s not forget the hundreds of diet books, cookbooks, kitchen gadgets, and other things, all purchased to facilitate my weight loss. And what have I lost? Nothing? Oh, no–I’ve lost money–a lot of it, and thousand of pounds, over and over and over and over, and gained them back each and every time. Does anybody see a problem here??? I know I do. If I had those dollars back for all the things I failed at, gave away, sold, and quit–including all the money paid to Weight Watchers over the years of joining, quitting, and joining again, only to quit–AGAIN, I’d be putting in for retirement! Instead, I’m as heavy as ever, broke, and very unhappy. That has GOT to change. It’s time to actually drink–unlike the stubborn fool in the title of this post.

So what to do? That’s what I’m going to figure out. What works? What doesn’t? (To be honest, I already have a really good idea of what doesn’t!) How do I get motivated, stay motivated, and keep the process moving forward? Why is this important. Is it important? Sometimes I wonder how important it really is to me. I want (I think…), more than anything, to be a size 12. I don’t aspire to be a size 6. That’ll never happen, unless I have my hip bones shaved down by a few inches. Not gonna happen. I just want to be able to wear all the kick-ass jeans I have, and I want to be healthy doing it. I want to be able to pick up my motorcycle if it hits the ground. I want to be noticed as “that woman on the motorcycle” NOT as “that FAT woman on the motorcycle.” So I have goals. Now to head toward them. If it truly is important, then it’s time to make it happen.