Willing

Willing . . . the mind is willing, but the rest of the body is not too sure.  That is how it is every year about this time.  The warm weather reappears and the clothes begin to disappear.  After a long winter of staying inside and not doing a whole bunch of exercising my body takes on a new shape as it shifts towards the south and stops above the belt line.  In the picture above, one can see the development of the infamous “pot belly” or “beer belly”.  After the previous winter I am in stage 2.5 of the “belly syndrome”—I am between the second and the third guy when viewed from the side.   I am slowly transforming into the Pillsbury Doughboy!

Now the logical thing to do about this dilemma is to exercise and watch one’s diet.  This is where the willingness comes in . . . the mind is willing, but the body is not too sure!  Exercise and dieting are work . . . . usually hard work.  Exercise means putting the body through various activities that have a tendency to make the muscles tired and sore.  There are aches and pains that come with exercising.  It involves sweat.  The mind seems to think that this is no big deal; the body doesn’t like the mind’s attitude.  The body gets to feel all of the aches and pain, the mind feels nothing.  The two do not agree on this matter one iota . . . so I am at a standstill at this point.  Nothing is happening.

But isn’t that the way it always goes.  The mind comes up with all of these wonderful ideas and then expects the body to come through with the effort to achieve them.  This is what irritates the body . . . it always gets to pay for whatever the mind dreams up.  This time, though the body does not want to have anything to do with it.  The body is refusing to participate.  In the meantime the mind is heavily contemplating the idea and doesn’t hear a word that the body is saying.  Despite the best efforts of the body to remind the mind of the previous experience of exercising and dieting, the mind is not having anything to do with the arguments.  The body thinks that the mind is a nincompoop.   They aren’t talking to each other right now.

The mind seems to do this to the body all of the time.  Often the mind forgets the age of the body.  The mind thinks it is ageless, but it never confers with the body that knows it is a heck of a lot older than the mind gives it credit for.  The mind seems to think it is an eternal twenty-one years of age and not the mid-fifties it really is.  The body gets to pay for it and it is getting sick and tired of it. 

 

In the meantime, well . . . nothing is happening.  There is no exercising taking place.  There is no dieting taking place.  There is just this verbal loop playing up there in the rock garden I call my mind that is trying to convince the body to give it the ol’ college try.  The body ain’t listening.  The result?  At this rate, I figure I will be in stage 3 or 4 by the end of the summer.  I guess there will just be more of me to love!  That is, if anyone is willing!