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"Guess what? I actually feel great today! Went for a long walk with Finn (my dog) this morning, and jogged for about half of it. I even walked briskly to work afterwards (another mile)... and it&amp;#039;s only 9am!  I think my motivation to jog more than usual today came from looking at other women exercising. But not all women -- sometimes looking at other women makes me feel worse about myself rather than motivated; and sometimes the other way around.  When I see a woman in perfect shape, with not a jiggle in sight, running, barely breaking a sweat, it makes me feel like I will never look like her, so why bother? She must&amp;#039;ve been born that way!  But today I saw quite a few out-of-shape women jogging, slowly, with lots of jiggling and even some bouncing and shimmying, too! I saw one woman, quite overweight, who was jogging along, huffing and puffing, with her shorts riding up between her legs as they rubbed together. I could tell she wasn&amp;#039;t loving this jog -- in fact, I could practically see the friction burn she&amp;#039;ll have afterwards -- but hey, at least she was doing it! I figure, if she can do it, so can I. So I picked up the pace and I felt amazing afterwards. Finn loved it too, running alongside me with his big tongue hanging out! ;P But I admit I probably spend too much time comparing myself to other women. I can&amp;#039;t help it -- I&amp;#039;m a people watcher by nature. It&amp;#039;s almost impossible for me to look at others and not compare myself on some level. I do this with everything. If she has curly hair, I look to see if she&amp;#039;s doing something I should be doing; if her butt looks great in jeans, I get completely and totally jealous; if she&amp;#039;s walking down the road, listening to her iPod and singing out loud, I think about how happy she is and how I should be that happy. The good news is that I don&amp;#039;t stew over these comparisons -- I either act on them right away (like, throw on the iPod and a good Madonna song to get instantly happy) or I forget about them. It&amp;#039;s not like I&amp;#039;m dwelling and feeling sorry for myself. It&amp;#039;s very fleeting.  Today, though, I&amp;#039;m glad I compared myself to those overweight women who were exercising, no matter the struggle, because I feel so motivated today. I may even walk again tonight! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a2096/constant-dieter-blog-061207/?src=shelter_footer>