An ounce of encouragement....

Yesterday in my Weight Watchers meeting, I coined a phrase......."An ounce of encouragement is worth a pound of fat!". Not only did it get a laugh, but I think it rang true for so many people in there. And it definately rings true for me, otherwise I wouldn't have said it.

Everyday I get out of bed, dutifully eat my WW friendly breakfast, and wait 45 minutes until I can get my running gear on and hit the pavement for however many miles my training plan says I should. Some days are easier than others. Some days I leave my house with a sense of impending doom and some days I leave knowing that it's gonna be an amazing run.

This week in particular has been a week of ups and downs. My stress level this week has been through the roof dealing with Halloween costumes of all things, finances, ex's of all kinds, and families, both biological and non bilogical. The up days, I don't need encouragement from other people, because I have it to give to myself. The down days, like today, I needed it. And although I left my house knowing it would be a good run, my brain was needing just a little bit of help.

I got help today in more than one way. Yesterday, I bought the black cherry clif bloks with a full shot of caffeine in them, and needless to say, after eating one, my brain cracked out and my legs were flying. But as good as I felt, I knew that the good feeling wasn't coming from me, it was coming from the drug I had coursing through my veins. But then, someone smiled at me while I was running, and I smiled and waved back, and suddenly, a drug of a different kind went through my veins. Encouragement from other people is the best thing that an athlete can get while plugging away on the pavement. Runners are a generally friendly lot of people, save for maybe the truly elites who are so into what they're doing that they couldn't possible spare a moment to smile at someone else. Most runners are feeling either the same exhileration or pain as me and could use the same motivation as me. And so, today as I felt my legs getting heavy and my caffeine buzz wearing off, a smile gave me the energy to keep going. Because after all, encouragement is positive reinforcement that what I'm doing is good. That turns into motivation, and motivation turns me into a former fatty. So, the next time I feel like I need to stop, I'm gonna find someone to smile at, and hopefully they'll smile back. Because an ounce of encouragement is worth a pound of fat! :)