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One of my more esoteric collections consists of hundred-year-old self-help books. I’m particularly fond of Orison Swett Marden, one of the first big names in success literature. Last week, I picked up a modern reprint of his 1901 pamphlet, “An Iron Will”. Here are a couple of paragraphs:
The athlete trains for his race; and the mind must be put into training if one will win life’s race.
“It is,” says Professor Mathews, “only by continued, strenuous efforts, repeated again and again, day after day, week after week, and month after month, that the ability can be acquired to fasten the mind to one subject, however abstract or knotty, to the exclusion of everything else. The process of obtaining this self-mastery — this complete command of one’s mental powers — is a gradual one, its length varying with the mental constitution of each person; but its acquisition is worth infinitely more than the utmost labor it ever costs.”
“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education,” it was said by Professor Huxley, “is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson which ought to be learned, and, however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson which he learns thoroughly.”
I’ve achieved mental discipline in some aspects of my life, including exercise. What I’ll focus on for the next few weeks is applying willpower to food.
Meanwhile, here are a few links from around the web:
- Jeremy at Almost Fit lists five reasons he avoids high-fructose corn syrup.
- Lazy Man has some tips for staying fit past middle age.
- Sally at Aprovechar shares 6 unconventional elements of her weight loss. This is a great article.
- Kevin at Weight Loss Journal asks, “Is stress making you fat?”
Finally,
Finally, Amy Jo forwarded a recent New York Times article about eating to enjoy instead of eating to diet. It’s filled with great insight like: “People of normal weight spend more time on meal-related tasks than people who are overweight or underweight.” One of my goals for the coming weeks is to actually spend time prepping my meals instead of grabbing quick stuff out of the fridge. (I hope to plan and prep meals the night before.)
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Mac
2 responses so far ↓
1 Sally Parrott Ashbrook // Sep 21, 2008 at 9:17 am
Love the idea of eating to enjoy. Admitting to myself that I not only adore food but that I think it’s entirely okay to adore food was a big step in me moving toward a healthier relationship with food. What’s not to love? It’s pleasurable, it’s cultural, it’s sometimes passionate, it’s homey—food is at the heart of who we are. When I focus on making food to celebrate all of that, I realize I can make generally healthy food and thoroughly enjoy it while bringing myself closer to a healthy weight.
JD, I know it’s not for everybody, but I generally plan meals by the week, and I find it enormously helpful. I’m not always perfect at sticking to my plan, but making the plan means I go out and fill my fridge with that healthy food. Then if I don’t eat it, it will go to waste—wasting money, wasting the energy and efforts of the people who grew it, etc. It helps keep me on track knowing the food is there. Also, it cuts down on the excuses I have not to make healthy food. I can’t say, “Oh, I’d have to go to the store to make that healthy dish, so I’ll just make a pizza instead.” The healthy ingredients are RIGHT THERE waiting.
(And I think figuring out a few easy, fast, healthy, tasty recipes makes all the difference in the world. . . . Hmmm, that sounds like a post I should write!)
2 Alexia // Sep 21, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I have totally turned things around since addressing the stress in my life, rather than the symptoms of the stress. Life is good
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