Fake It Till you Make It

I’m feel I’m still a newbie when it comes to blogging and facebooking, but I am starting to  see that a somewhat distorted view of people can come across in these social media formats.  I get the feeling some people think that all I ever focus on is my workouts or my fitness status and that I think other people are losers if they aren’t as focused as I am on all that stuff.  Or I feel that others might feel sorry for me that I don’t realize there’s more to life than exercise and eating right. 



Yet another outing to Red Rock to discover new caves.
This was, of course, after a 6-mile run.
Sooooo routine.  Yawn.



To anyone out there that thinks that, I say, “Ha!  Spend a day with me and you’ll see why I named my blog “The Lazy Personal Trainer.”  I have intended to use the blog to document the ups and downs of the fitness side of my life.  And while I have talked about many of my inconsistencies and failures at trying to live a healthy lifestyle, I find that I do tend to focus on events that make me come across as more successful, more dedicated, and just more awesome than I really am.  I mean, I’d much rather post how fantastic I felt that I was able to take my planned workout in the garage out to do an improvised sidewalk workout of burpees, pushups and curb plyo jumping so that R could ride her scooter in the Cul-de-sac (true story from today!) than how lazy I often am in the morning by forcing the girls to eat bananas in bed and watch a DVD – just so I can get a few more minutes of sleep after having stayed up too late…again – until they are begging me to toast them a waffle (sadly, another true story from today...and yesterday).

K’s facebooking about our fun family adventures makes us come across as the funnest, coolest family out there.  And while I acknowledge we are a pretty darn amazing unit, you might not be so impressed if you knew how much we annoy each other on a daily (hourly) basis or how the laundry/household clutter builds up in between our fantastic excursions.



Another all-too-common scene around the house.
Hey - they're clean.  Just gotta fold 'em.



But I’m starting to see this modern social networking stuff as a powerful form of positive self-talk.  I find that if I frequently share the positive things that I am doing, it feeds the fire to do even more cool things so that I can keep the impression alive – to myself and others – that I am way more on top of things than I really am.  Although a few people have good-naturedly expressed their annoyance at K’s frequent posts about his workouts (telling him to chill out a bit and take a nap every now and then) even more folks have expressed how our family activities have motivated them to do more fun and active things within their own families!

So, although I will still inject plenty of doses of reality by copping to my lazy bone, I’m gonna keep trying to convince myself and others that my life is one fantastic ride.  Because it often is!

This is where the relevance of one of my favorite quotes lately comes in – and it applies to any aspect of our lives:  “Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.”  –Leonard Cohen

And maybe the popular phrase, “Fake it till you make it,” can also be applied!