Just Do It!

I had a great day today. In spite of the rainy, cold weather that is rare for May, but then again, I do live in Cleveland, I had a great day. I had a productive day at work, a great lunch (let's face it - its all about the food), a good dinner with the fam and a great night of good Tuesday tv ahead of me. And to what do I attribute this all around good day to? I could say it was because of my positive attitude. After all "choosing your attitude" can be a powerful strategy and does impact your mood (I guess that is obvious). But it wasn't that. I could say it was that I won the lottery, but I would be lying. I never play. It wasn't that. I could say that it was the cosmos or the planets were aligned just right for a Taurus to have a good day on the 11th day of May 2010, but I don't believe in that stuff. It wasn't that. I could say that I received some great news about someone I loved. But, sadly, no. It wasn't that.

What was it? It was my run!!!!!! So, this might not come as that huge of a surprise, especially since my blog is pretty much focused on running (and food and such). But, I just have to comment on how much of a difference running made in my world today. Let's compare yesterday (no run) to today (run - a bad one at that!). Now, I admit yesterday was Monday so that is a tough customer already. And the Monday after a special weekend (Mother's Day) that involved the imbibing of a stellar bottle of cab to boot. But, be that as it may, rather than running yesterday, I actually curled up on my couch during lunch for a 15 minute power nap. The rest of the day was just okay, but I really fought being tired all day and went to bed early. Today, on the other hand, I got my office cleaned up in the morning, ran at lunch and had SUCH a productive afternoon - not tired at all. Now, I have to admit that the run sucked so it wasn't that I was just so impressed by my raw athletic performance. My calves hurt, my ipod got stuck, and I was slow as molasses. But, the point here is that I did it. I got those endorphins moving enough to kick up the serotonin in my brain to elevate my mood and give me an energy boost to last throughout the rest of the day.

Now, one might read this and go, "well, duh...that is what exercise does, of course." Yes, I get that. But, both my point and my question is this...how can we make everyday this way. How do we motivate ourselves on those sluggish Mondays (or other days) to "just do it" as Nike says. I know that if I would have run yesterday I would have felt better - guaranteed, but I let myself off the hook. Now, I'm not trying to beat myself up here. I do understand that some days we need to rest and we can make the decision to take a break from our activity. I just think it would be cool to have a strategy in place to coax myself out of those times in order to let myself get into that real productive zone more frequently. I'll think on it. Maybe during my next run - TOMORROW!!!