Writing, Eating, and Hanging Tough

by Bert Carson

This post isn't about writing, at least not totally, and it isn't about eating, at least not totally.  This post is totally about hanging tough.

I've been losing weight for over sixty years.  In the course of that time I've tried everything you can imagine and probably some things that even you can't imagine.  A couple of things that have stuck, but not proved to be the end-all-cure-all, are vegetarianism and running, both of which I've been a practitioner of for more than thirty-five years.   In spite of that, until a couple of months ago, I was carrying more weight than I wanted to carry, and I was still a slave to my appetite.

Now, twenty pounds later and with satisfying my appetite far down my to-do list, I know that I've finally found the answer to the weight thing.  The answer was so simple; it still boggles me - stop eating sugar.  Since I'm not writing about eating, I'm not going to go into detail about it; however, if you want to know more about eating sugar free, read Christina's blog:  How Sweet It Is To Be Sugar Free.  

Here's my point about eating.  It's easy for me to say things like: "Just stop eating sugar." Or, "Sugar is the only diet issue you have, cut it out."  Or, "Go sugar free and live to be a zillion,"  and a lot of other things like that.  However, easy has nothing to do with going sugar free.  Sugar is added to almost everything I've eaten since I was two years old.  Check a few food labels, and you'll see what I mean.  Which is my point.  If you're going to eat sugar free, you have to be serious.  You have to be committed.  You have to "hang in there."

So what does eating and hanging in there have to do with writing?  It's the same issue.  It's easy for me say, "Just write."  Or, "Make time everyday to write at least (fill in the blank) words or pages every day."  Easy to say, but what about the days when you have a zillion things to do, and at best, you figure you aren't going to get half of them?  What do you do on those days?

You guessed it - you hang tough.  You put whatever IT is: sugar free eating, writing daily, running, walking the dog, whatever, in the front of your mind, and

you keep it there.  You don't let anything take it away.  You hang tough.

If you can't hang tough, don't name the IT in the first place, then you won't be adding, beat-myself-up-for not-hanging-tough to your list of things to do today.

Here's a hint - tattoo the words of my new favorite novel character, Joe Pike, on the inside of your eyelids -

"If it were easy it wouldn't be fun."    

Joe Pike