Pushing that little bit extra

About a year ago, I realized I had put on some weight. It wasn't the doctor's visit that convinced me. After all, how accurate can those scales be with patients stepping on them all day long? Plus, I had my wallet and keys in my pocket, so that surely accounted for the thirty pounds I didn't remember gaining. And yes, my old pants didn't fit anymore, and I even had to buy a new belt, but really that's not enough information to conclude that I had put on weight. What changed my views, however, was when my parents saw me at my sister's wedding. I hadn't seen my folks in a couple years, and they were shocked at the belly on their son. They kept saying things like, "It's not that you're fat, it's just that I think of you as slim and you don't look like you." Or, in other words: "wow, you got fat."

So I figured the sugary sodas and regular consumption of Ding Dongs combined with my sedentary lifestyle might not be the best route for optimal health. I cut those out and just tried to keep on eye on my eating. No big deal. In a few months I'd dropped fifteen pounds. But that was all that was coming off. My old pants still didn't fit. My new belt was still bigger than I felt ideal. So I decided to actually work at it and try to lose the extra weight.

Now, as my parents said, I've been slim most of my life and never had to worry much about stuff like this before, but fortunately, in the past three months, through maintaining a healthier diet and bumping up my exercise, I've shed another twenty pounds and am back close to where I was when I got out of college. I realize I'll never be as thin as I was in my teen years, but then again I don't really want to look like that now. Nearly thirty, about 150 seems okay.

But what does this have to do with writing, since that is the subject of this blog? Well, I noticed something in my efforts to lose weight that I feel has a strong connection to writing. It's easy to act like I'm trying to lose weight, but not really do anything about it, to claim it would be nice to get back down to where I was several years ago, but to only put in the minimal effort. And when that's my approach, I only get to a certain level, and then nothing else happens. But when really focusing and working hard on it, I accomplish more. Pretty basic, I know, but still valuable I think.

The biggest analogous aspect of losing weight for me comes when I'm riding the exercise bike. It's tiring, my legs start to ache a little, and my body basically wants me to stop doing it after I've barely warmed up. But I can decide how much more I'm going to do. When I don't think I can go on for much longer, I can say, okay five more minutes. Or, the one that I've noticed the most is when I switch up to a higher speed for a couple of minutes. I'll set my book down and keep my eye on the clock. I want to slow down; my legs are tired. Thirty more seconds. Come on, this is long enough. Twenty seconds. Okay, I can do it, maybe. Ten, nine. eight. And so I push that extra little bit and wind up burning more calories and losing the weight.

The same principle is true of writing. It's so easy to claim that I want to write, but then never squeeze in the time. But there are opportunities to make it happen. If I set a goal and push through to achieve it even when I'm tired and ready to quit, then I'm making progress. With the fantasy novel I'm currently writing, I've been setting goals for myself to do at least 2,000 words a day and 4,000+ if I can manage it. More often than not, I can squeeze in those extra words. This might mean that if it's late at night and I'd just as soon go to bed or read a book somebody else wrote and actually published, I keep writing instead. Simply staying up a little later, and not quitting for the day until the goal is met can make a huge difference.

Right now I'm three quarters of the way through my novel, and I only began writing it seventeen days ago. And I think one of the major reasons for that is because when I'm ready to set the computer aside and do something else, when I'm feeling tired and want to go to bed, when it's been a long day and I want to give myself a pass on writing for the evening, I sit down and do it anyway. If it's ten PM and I haven't written a word, well I better get cracking so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour because that goal can still be met.