Friday, June 24, 2011

Did He Just Call Me Lazy?

I know I quote a lot of conversations my husband and I have. It's just that his view of things can be so different from mine. And I don't just mean from a man and a woman's perspective. I mean me being born and raised in the US and him being raised in Africa . He sees things so simply where sometimes I have a tendency to complicate things. And yes...I do know women can sometimes do that. Hell, sometimes I do it on purpose if I want to just be snotty. But some things are important enough that I have to consider his view and roll it around in my head for a while.

Just the other day, we were discussing our progress in the gym. He does a lot of walking because unlike me, he's embraced public transportation, so he gets a bit more exercise throughout the day. I sit all day with the occasional walk around the building and sprint up and down the back stairs. Hardly anything to write home about. So anyway, I was strutting pass him and told him I really need to work harder to get better results. Then I patted my stomach and said 'So I can get rid of this.' He shook his head, scoffed and said, 'You pay too much attention to how you look. You look good but you don't want to work hard enough to make it better. But that’s how all Americans are.  They don't have to work too hard so if it seems tough, they just do something else.’ This sparked a long eye-opening conversation. Well, it was probably more eye-opening for me!


I wanted to respond with argument but something stopped me. But, did he just call me lazy? It was very true that even though I workout, I don’t push myself as much as I should. I have hit a place in my workout where I no long sweat as much as I did and I haven’t moved much beyond that. Now, a while back I said I needed to push harder. And I have….on the treadmill. But that’s mainly because it’s easier. I haven’t incorporated any new moves that might work different muscles for toning. I think about it and sometimes I even plan it but once I get in the gym, the will and drive is left at the door and I’m left with mundane and skin misting workouts. I need an exciting, grunting, soak your shirt workout. But I’ve done nothing to accomplish this. Maybe I’m must scared. Or maybe it is just pure laziness.

The second part I focused on was me paying too much attention. He went on to say that I am paying too much attention to how I look and I should be paying attention to what I can do. Now, as with working out harder, a while back I said I had stopped focusing on the scale and had discovered the pleasures of reaching challenges in the gym. I remember telling him his. He was paying attention. Somewhere along the way, I lost the excitement of physical accomplishment and once again began workout out with feelings of obligation. I'm guessing this came when I stopped pushing the limit. Funny how two things that seemed so separate coincide with each other. So, I now need to backtrack and get back to where I was.

We concluded the conversation with me asking him to help me get back on track but to refrain from generalizing that all Americans were lazy. LOL. Of course he denied ever saying that....that was my translation. He agreed once we got the wording correct. Once again, I'm working on my head. Still don't know why I have been hesitant about the working harder part. Maybe I am not use to doing that. Maybe I'm afraid I'll fail. Or just maybe, I'm being lazy. Either way, I know what I have to do.


Quote today comes from me through a response I gave a co-worker regarding my muscle soreness.  She said maybe I should stop doing those types of exercises.  I told her I'm learning by doing finishing with: The more you know, the more you grow, and slowly but surely the pain will go!

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