GET STARTED, KEEP IT GOING

Two of the hardest  words to learn in the English language: Get Started.

Most get started after they’re told what to do.

“Stand up. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat. Get started now.”

It’s that easy and that hard to get started.

With the reported obesity epidemic sweeping the nation’s youth why don’t more baby boomers get started moving to show a good example?

(Quick review: Stand up. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat. That’s how to get started.)

Why don’t more boomers get started? Because it’s hard.

If you’ve watched Food Network cooking shows then you know how easy they make cooking look.

The show Chopped couldn’t be more basic. Open a box of ingredients and make the best dish possible.

The cooks get started right away. They’re on the clock.

How about you?

It’s as easy as opening a pantry or fridge at home. There’s the ingredients.

Get started making your masterpiece.

Oh, you don’t know how to cook? Don’t like to cook? Then find a recipe for something you like to eat and get started.

It’s not that hard. Take Spain’s famous paella.

You could boil rice, throw in a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, and call it good.

Genius.

Add a few chopped veggies and meat and you’ll be hailed as kitchen wizard.

Or go the hard way and cook paella in a twenty gallon batch in a pan big enough for a grown woman to curl up in. Stir with a canoe paddle.

Now you’re an international chef. Take a bow. You got started and didn’t stop.

Was it that hard to get started? Yes.

Based on new research and media howls, eating better and exercising couldn’t be more important. Or easier.

You get hounded from TV commercials, bullied from your laptop, reminded on your tablet.

Even your phone drills it in. Eat better. Exercise. Get started.

If that’s enough you can wear a bracelet that measures your day. Now you can download your personal stats to an app that charts your calories and how many you burn. And need to burn.

Call it a fat app.

“Oh look, I inhale more than I exhale. Who knew.” You can keep it a secret.

I’ve got a fat app already. It’s called my belt.

If I’m buckling in a new hole above the worn one, I’m gaining weight. A new hole below the stretched on means I’m losing. It’s no secret.

It’s low tech to no tech, and it works to get started.

The smaller the belt the clearer the message: Keep doing what you’re doing.

The larger belt says, “Do more.”

I’ll close with a scene played out too often in places where people gather to improve themselves. No, not the hospital. The gym dressing room.

“I’m forty three years old. I weight 380 lbs. Down from 510. First I dropped to 240 after my gastric surgery, then gained a few back. Had one hip replaced. The other one is next.

“I’ve learned to deal with my weight and the people who think I need their opinion about my weight.

“I’m fat. I know I’m fat. But not as fat as I used to be. I get started the same way every day. I will be better than yesterday.”

He said this to a man, an older man, a Vietnam Veteran with Agent Orange exposure.

“Get started. That’s it.

“When I was over 300 lbs, a good ways over, I could barely move. How could I get started? The Agent Orange did me in, but I wasn’t ready.

“I’d take my walker out on forest trails and just walk the best I could. Runners and bike riders yelled at me to get out of their way, but I just kept going. It was life or death, which didn’t really matter to the yellers.

“One you get started it’s hard to stop. I kept going. I weigh about a buck ninety now and haven’t stopped. No one is ever going to tell me to stop.

“I lost my weight the hard way. The little pooch around my gut will always be there. I could have it sucked out and get tightened up but it reminds me to get started every day.

“It hasn’t grown in fifteen years. I could fill it up in six months if I wanted.

“No matter your condition you can do something. Get started and you’ll be way ahead of the game.

“Get started now. Get started tomorrow. The only time you can’t get started is yesterday, so today works just fine.”

What have you done to get started? Let your fellow readers know in comments.