Last night was tough for me. I kept trying to find diversions, but I was having a lot of problems with depression. So far, the antidepressants I’ve been prescribed haven’t seemed to do anything noticeable for me. On the other hand, they don’t seem to be making things worse (like the first ones I was put on), so…

Exercise seems to be the one of the few things that really makes me feel good these days – one of the only lasting fixes, that is. I guess that makes me lucky… some people haven’t found anything to relieve them. Unfortunately, when I feel like I have to get away from what’s bringing me down and getting me upset, and I go to the park and try to walk it off, I find that I’m making things worse, because I’m not just suffering depression by that point, I’m having an anxiety attack. I didn’t realize that until this past weekend, and it’s a good thing I did. Now I’m paying more attention to that, making sure that I know what I need to remedy before I try.

So, I went to bed feeling lousy. I know, they say never to go to bed mad (actually, that’s usually advice for couples, but I’ve heard it applied to the single person as well. Supposedly it’s unhealthy, but I find it’s better to try to sleep when I’m feeling crappy at night. At some point I’m going to want to sleep, anyway, and if I try to cure myself by working out, then I’ll have all kinds of energy keeping me up all damn night. Not good. On the other hand, if I just go to bed and get some sleep, I usually find I’ll feel better by morning.

This morning was no exception. I did feel better. In fact, it wasn’t a good twenty minutes until I even thought about how I felt the night before. And it was probably about 45 minutes before it really started to set in and I was feeling like shit again. Finally, after a little over an hour, I found that I was trying to talk myself out of working out! Well, I knew that wasn’t going to do me any good, and if I wanted to break the funk, I needed a warmup. As you can see above, I got my ten minutes in, along with another 30, before going outside for a cool-down. After that, I felt great. It’s been hours and I’m still feeling pretty good.

Granted, when the door to one of the kitchen drawers fell off, just from me opening it, that didn’t help matters, but frankly, that’s a trivial thing. I couldn’t have done anything to stop that, and I imagine a wood epoxy will put things to rights. I got some of the cursing out of my system and went about making my breakfast.

Now, to get to the title. When we were children, we were told the story of the rabbit and the hare. The point, or moral, we were told, was that “slow and steady wins the race”. No… slow and steady might win a race or two – especially if you’re racing against some jackrabbit that decides it’s so far ahead of you, it might as well take a nap before crossing the finish line – but if you watch the summer Olympics, you’ll notice that slow and steady doesn’t even QUALIFY for the race!

But, of course, we don’t tell children the truth, because they’re not capable of the deep understanding that we adults are. Actually, depending on the age of the child, I imagine they are quite capable of understanding many a thing which might surprise us; the real problem is a certain area in which WE, the adults, lack. A child may have a shorter attention span that we do, but patience THEY GOT. They’ll ask questions until they’ve forgotten what they’re asking questions about, or we just… run out of patience with them. And what do we do then? Lie, usually.

What, you might ask, IS the moral of the Tortoise and the Hare? It’s as simple as this: Run your own Race. Of course, that does recommend a lot of independence. Perhaps that’s why we keep it from the children.

So, what does that mean, anyway? Run your own race? Whose race WOULD you run, otherwise? Well, yes, what I’m saying is whatever it is you’re doing, you have to make it your own. You can’t go using another person’s diet to run your race, not unless you adapt it to your needs and make it work for you. When it comes to weight loss, your race should be like a fingerprint – similar in some ways, but so unmatched that the world has come to the conclusion that there are no two alike.

If you think I’m talking out of my rear-end, let me explain something – I never really found success with weight-loss until I actually started running my own race. I don’t even think I knew how to, at least not when it came to losing weight. I’d try this diet and that, this exercise program and that. And I would keep the deviations VERY slight. After all, how can the program work if you won’t follow the instructions?

The program that I follow now is based on a framework that Dr. Eeks presented to me (and a million thanks to you, E!), which has been tweaked in divers ways, as I saw need, and sometimes, at Erin’s suggestion. Anything that works, stays; if it doesn’t, goodbye!

When other people start waxing eloquent about what you ought to be doing, or how something that works for you “is really bad for you and you should stop right away!”, keep this in mind – if you want to give them control of your race, and let them run part of it for you, fine. But if you want to run your own race, don’t worry about them. Most people know they don’t know what they are talking about but still talk about it anyway.

Think about that for a second… how many times a day do you witness that? How many times a day are you guilty of the same? As Ron Bennington would say, “It don’t make you a bad person.” In fact, it might indicate the opposite, since we usually do that because we’re TRYING to understand what we’re talking about, and sharing what we’ve come across with others. The intention is to learn and share information, but the result is often an unhappy one.

The best solution to that is to thank the person for their advice and then go about running your own race. If you don’t feel like it will work for you, and what it would replace is already working well, then what’s the point? This is especially true when the person advising you isn’t even drawing from his own experience. He heard about someone else’s race, and now he wants you to run that race! That’s 3^rd person don’t-give-a-damn!

If someone tells you the race is over, do you stop, or keep going? Well, you’re giving control of your race over to someone else if you stop. Until you cross that finish line, your race isn’t over, and don’t let anyone tell you it is.

Don’t just run your own race, but run it at your own pace. Who cares if you don’t beat the other runners? This is YOUR race you’re running. If someone puts hurdles in front of you, and you’re not ready to jump hurdles yet, go around.

Is that enough metaphors? I’ll paraphrase one from my father as well: “The race doesn’t go to the fastest, it goes to the determined.” Or, to put it in Galaxy Quest terms, “Never give up! Never surrender!”

Today’s Workout

Fever - Aerosmith
Jackson Cannery - Ben Folds Five
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Carly Simon
Jumpin' Jive - Joe Jackson
SOS - Brosnan & Streep
Take On Me (A Capella Tribute) - BYU's Vocal Point
Flip, Flop and Fly - Blues Brothers
Vrbana Bridge - Jill Sobule
Dude Looks Like a Lady - Aerosmith
Dancing in the Streets - Bowie and Jagger
One Love - Bob Marley
Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane

Total – 30 min. Not bad,  especially since that doesn’t count the warmup or cooldown. Just have to do this every day, now.

If the above confuses you, see the end of yesterday’s post.

TODAY’S SPECIAL… IS SEX!

Well, more specifically, it’s a blog post from Natural Knowledge 24/7, and it’s all about aphrodisiacs. What’s that? Aphrodisiacs are a myth? The hell, you say! Well, maybe stuff like “Rhino Horn” and “Horny Goat Weed”, yeah, I’ll grant you… and oysters… oh wait, oysters are actually on that list. And there’s scientific reasoning for it!

Guys, want to eat something that releases an odorless hormone through your sweat and turns women on? Turns out it’s one of my favorite vegetables… this may answer a few questions about me that Mark Franzeo has had for years! Check the blog post out, and you’ll be a regular Svengali in no time!

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

I saw this photo this morning and realized that my idea I had of writing about my philosophy (RYOR) was meant to be. You can call it a coincidence if you like, I call it kismet. And the fact that this photo could be the most normal thing Dali ever came up with doesn’t hurt, either.

That’s it for today! Come back tomorrow for more!