Harajuku Moment

A Harajuku moment is that moment when you decide you've had enough. When you decide it's time to change and this time you mean it.

In his book, The 4-Hour Body, Timothy Ferriss shares stories of people who reached their Harajuku moment.

I reached mine a couple of months ago.

I was several months out of a divorce, working long hours sitting at a desk, had decided not to date or have much of a social life at all for that matter, and decided that letting my figure and health go didn't matter anymore.

And so I continued on this path to self destruction - not getting enough sleep, eating whatever crap I wanted whenever I wanted, sitting long hours without exercising, and living in sweat pants and XL t-shirts left behind by my ex-husband.

It was comfortable, I thought.

I'm happy, I thought.

This is good for me, I thought.

I really don't care that I look terrible, I thought.

I could feel myself getting heavier, becoming more short of breath when simply walking across a room, not sleeping well, making poor choices in my diet.

Weekends, I'd be like, "I have a ton of work to do. I'm gonna' need chocolate and Dr. Pepper to motivate me. But you know what? I deserve it. I work hard. I deserve a reward."

That was not rewarding myself. It was destroying myself.

I started ditching baby showers, bridal showers, wedding receptions, parties, dinners - any social event. I hardly left my cave. I hardly saw the light of day. I had nothing to wear anyway. I didn't feel good. I just wanted to stay comfortable - hiding in my cave and wearing tent-sized clothing.

One day I looked at myself in the mirror and decided - ENOUGH! I'm sick of this. This is not me. I've lost myself in this misery. I want to be happy and healthy and get out and have a life again. THAT'S what I deserve! Not chocolate. Not chips. Not ice cream. Not Dr. Pepper. Not greasy fast food. Those aren't rewards. Those are more like punishments.

That was my Harajuku  moment.

You have to have that moment. You can't just say, "Well, okay I'll try it if you say it's good." You have to want it. You have to be done with feeling and looking crappy. You have to say "Enough is enough" and mean it.

That is the ONLY way you will have success. This is my third week to do this diet. I did not lose a single pound my second week on the diet. Typically I would throw my hands up and give up at this point and say, "Well, I guess it's not gonna' work out for me. Oh well. I tried."

No. Not this time.

I'm excited to go to the store and stock up on these foods that will make me feel alive again. I'm excited to spend an hour in the kitchen every Sunday evening separating and preparing my meat rations for the week. I love standing back and looking at my preparatory work and thinking about how much good it's doing for me.

In fact, I HATE binge days. Hate them! I feel yucky. I look forward to Sunday when I can get back on my diet that makes me feel good again. On binge day I sat down with a bowl of popcorn - my absolute favorite snack.

NOT ANYMORE! It didn't taste good to me and didn't make feel good. In fact, it put me off. I don't like salty, buttery popcorn anymore. It makes me dehydrated and bloated.

And I LOVE water. Okay, so I drink a lot of crack water (refer to past post), but I can't get enough of water. It makes me feel so good.

I hope you can find your Harajuku moment. If you haven't found it, this way of life won't work for you. Nothing will. Not until you've had enough.