I am Nathan and I am addicted to Couch

Categories: Health Posted by NateChurch on 8/18/2008 6:23 AM | Comments (2)

Starting to run again is a lot like quitting smoking. (If you aren't or were never a smoker I suggest you just take my word for it.) When you quit smoking you go through withdrawal, and running is no differnent. You find yourself lusting after any activity that involves laying around. TV, internet, or eating there is always something to do that isn't running.

In both cases you know that quitting will result in a better happier you, but that doesn't matter when the alarm goes off at 5:30am. It took me several attempts to finally quit smoking. This is because excuses are like the hairs on my back, numerous and unattractive.  I would listen to anything that resulted in another drag. One time, I had quit smoking for a year and 9/11 happened so I needed to smoke. What does one have to do with the other I don't know. I don't even remember the excuse I came up with to justiy it. So I have tried to get back in to running a few times, but the couch was calling me.

So I am quitting couch. What is different this time? I don't know that it is. I do know I am going to keep trying to quit the couch until I succeed.  I am going to fight through this and become a non-coucher. I won't become one of those non-couchers who look down on those who still couch because I have been there. I love couching, I just love me more.  I have blood pressure so high I have to take medication and a BMI of a 31.5. This is not how you act when you care about yourself.

They say that doing something for 21 days creates a habit, so I check back with me on 2008Sep08!



Comments

Hank United States on 8/18/2008 12:18 PM I don't think quiting couch is the answer Nate.  I think that if you couch sensibly, you may never have to leave the couch again.  What if you started to look at your couch as a fluffy little gymnasium instead of a tar pit of dispair?  What if you actually did *more* from the couch instead of less?
Follow me here...how many calories do you burn a week whippin up batches of stomache pancakes?  A guy like you...I bet that could be in the hundreds.  Now...what if you whipped those up on the couch?  Huh?  Think about it.
Or hey, why waste all that time setting and unsetting the dining room table, when you can just eat on the couch, huh?  Set the coffee table a few inches further away, and you my friend are doing what I like to call *couch crunches* to get to your plate.  It practicly makes eating a zero sum game, caloricly speaking.
My point here is, don't go jumping to hasty schemes and conclusions when it comes to addressing your relationship to what some might consider....your best friend next to the remote control.  Moderation buddy, moderation.
quincy United States on 8/19/2008 10:18 AM Nathan,
Wow! I am inspired by your honesty and willingness to change. I believe you and in you and I think you are going to do it. Medication sucks and it has so many side effects. Why would any of us take it if we could really live without it? Did you know blood pressure medication makes you lose your hair, decreases your libido, causes sinus and respiratory infections, smokers' cough, and rashes? Yikes! and this is all in the name of decreasing blood pressure so that we don't have a stroke and end up paralyzed or in some other way debilitated?!? And all of this, every bit of it could be controlled if we stop putting so much crap into our bodies and begin to push ourselves off the couch, out of the attitude, over the excuses, into the zone, and exactly where we know we need/have/want to go.
Maybe when we get old, we won't have a choice-genes and history will kick in and to stay alive and breathing, we'll have to begin the long, slippery slope down the medication mountain....but self inflicted and self induced poor health? No thank you. Good for you, Nate. Your story and insight have inspired me-so sorry I have to go...gotta lace on my running/walking shoes...and yes, it is too hot, and I am kinda tired, and I have a lot of work to do-but hey! I am and you are... We're really worth the effort!
I'll be checking on your site on Sept. 8!
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