The First Five

Why do the first five minutes of a workout have to suck so bad? A workout can be 30 minutes, or 2 hours, and those first five minutes remain killer. They're the deal-breaker. They give you just enough time to reconsider what you're doing. "Do I really need to be jump roping right now?"

"Wasn't there some errand I needed to run?"

"Come on, it's not like I ever wear a bathing suit, anyway ..."

Your mind decides to take a field day in those first five minutes and thumb through all its greatest hits of excuses. All the tried-and-true ones, the ones that have really proven promising in the past. And even though you've been good about working out, for some reason those first five minutes can make you feel nauseous, jittery, and (how dare they) out of breath! So now you look like a poser, like you're already worn out before you've begun. Sigh.

This is when I like to think of Jack and Kate in those early LOST episodes, when they were overcome by strange situations of fear on the island that they had to deal with. And Jack's method for dealing, that he passed along to Kate, was to count to five. Let the fear take over you, envelope you, and let yourself be terrified for five seconds. And know, as you were counting, that that five seconds were all that you were going to give to fear. After that, you were done, and it was on.

Have I mentioned I've been watching nothing but LOST episodes as I've been working out?