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How much wood could a wood chuck chop, if a wood chuck could chop wood? [Jan. 4th, 2009|11:59 pm]
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[Current Mood | silly]

Something put me in a real crabby mood today.

 

I think it has something to do with this nasty cold I’m fighting, which caused me to miss my last four workouts.

 

And we all know what happens when I miss four workouts, in a row.

 

Back to the crabby mood—I’m storming around the house, cursing the snot and the hacking cough, trying to cause a fight with Mr. Shortpants, sitting down, standing up, walking around and cursing. It is not a pretty sight.

 

I decide to go grocery shopping. I’m not sure what possessed me to go grocery shopping, and I am definitely not sure what made me think that grocery shopping would be the answer to missing four workouts because I’m feeling so sick, but off I went.

 

I should have just put on my running shoes and gone for an easy walk around the block.

 

As you can assume, the grocery store was not the answer.

 

But it is funny—two years ago, I would have smoked a cigarette or had a couple of drinks to soothe my crabby mood. Today, while walking the aisles of the grocery store, I imagined myself chopping wood.

 

I haven’t done a lot of wood chopping in my life but it seemed to be one of the most physical activities that I could think of in that moment.

 

It seems odd that I didn’t think of mile 18 in the marathon, doesn’t it? But I went with the wood chopping. And there in the card aisle, my pulse actually went from 110 beats per minute (hyper-crabby, you might say) to a respectable 67 beats per minutes.

 

Two years ago I don’t think I would have guessed that exercise would be such an important character in my life. And I definitely wouldn’t have thought that visualizing wood chopping would calm my crabbies.  

 

Visualizing wood chopping, however, did not prevent me from buying fancy licorice and sugar cookies at the grocery store, both of which were not on my grocery list.

 

All the more reason to run tomorrow.

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Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]katie_keysburg
2009-01-06 01:26 am (UTC)

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I had a stressful drive home because it was snowing. I had a major urge to binge... then I remembered this post, and I pictured myself lifting weights... and the urge vanished. Thanks for this! I'm sure I will use it to fend off many emotional eating urges in the future.
[User Picture]From: [info]kero734
2009-01-06 03:23 pm (UTC)

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Sometimes when I'm at the gym I picture myself in these crazy intense fighting situations...like Buffy style, fighting demons and vampires and doing backflips and stuff. I know it's not the same thing...but visualizing that stuff keeps me pumped and prevents me from stopping the elliptical early. :)