I joined the Grand Rapids YMCA two months ago. I just went for the first time (after 3 payments of $55) yesterday. My school of thought about exercise regimens has always been, “Do not turn up for Pilates class until you have lost 5 pounds or are an expert at Pilates.” I wouldn’t want to start an exercise class without being in tiptop shape or the best in show, right? It doesn’t matter that I am paying for my empty spot. Nor that I am not seeming to drop the weight or practice in preparation… Hence putting off starting at all.

I Have My Reasons…

Whenever I have tried to institute a positive life change, like quitting drinking for example, I have this thing I do. It’s not just that I put it off. I am a pleasure seeker, so I will always hesitate before I do anything hard. It’s that I also feel the need to stockpile bad stuff the night or nights before I do the positive thing.

When I go on a diet, I eat everything fattening I can think of – even if I don’t want it – the night before. The many times I tried to quit drinking, I would swill a death defying amount of booze the prior evening. When you think about it, that is the definition of self-sabotage. For two reasons. One, you are telling yourself that the “bad thing” is going to be so missed you have to stay up all night to overindulge it one last time. Like that vacation, Italian lover the night before you leave for Kansas and your old, dull life…

Two, you set yourself back by loading up on the bad thing. Starting to quit drinking with a hangover may seem like an inspirational thing to do. But all you want the morning after a last-call binge is a Bloody Mary. If I eat a cake in toto, I wake wanting more cake. See what I mean?

Don’t Let This Happen to You

Maybe no one else on earth stockpiles, but I know a lot of people procrastinate. Don’t let this happen to you. And don’t glamorize the bad thing by having one last fling. Especially the night before a cleanse. And don’t put off the inevitable. I turned up at the Y and I was not the blue ribbon, best in the Pilates class. But I was not the worst one either. And it’s not a contest.

Just turn up.

The post Procrastination, Self Sabotage and Other Bad Things… first appeared on Waking Up The Ghost - Alcohol Recovery.