Mr. Aditya Sehgal had had enough.
He was ready for change because he needed it now more than ever. Carrying two black Adidas socks, a water bottle, and his phone, he marched his way to the gym room with a sense of purpose. He was a man on a personal mission, having nobody to impress but himself.
This momentous occasion necessitated that Mr. Sehgal carry absolutely nothing in his pockets. He didn’t want anything inhibiting him from this goal. So, he set his blue Thermoflask on a table next to his treadmill, turned on silent mode on his phone, and put on the two cotton socks and shoes – first left, then right. Instantly, he felt a healing warmth travel from the ground to his cold feet, enveloping them, easing the winter numbing. Part of him wanted to bask in that comfort, to savor the influx of dopamine. But he couldn’t. Not anymore. After all, what was the point of getting on the treadmill if not escaping his dreaded “comfort zone”?
As he stepped onto the treadmill with his torn gray Under Armour shoes, he felt anxious. Will he regain the stamina he once had? The 8-minute miles he ran and 3-hour tennis matches he once played with ease now felt worlds away. Will his body keep up now?
Beep… Beep… Beep…
A whirring jumpstarts the treadmill belt, which begins rolling backward. Mr. Sehgal walks at a speed of three miles per hour, then four. So far, so good. He rolls the throttle up one more and tries jogging at a steady five. And then, he feels it.
He was carrying the weight of junk food in his stomach. Eating three chewy chocolate chip cookies at a time never felt like too much, but now, he experienced every crumb bump against the walls of his stomach as he swayed side to side. Another sharp pain emerged on the top left of his diaphragm; it was his body’s way of punishing him for all the daily hamburgers, nacho fries, burritos, and sauces he ingested. Together, these items weighed somewhere between two and five pounds, but the added guilt skyrocketed that number.
Nonetheless, he kept pushing. Mr. Sehgal knew this was the only way he could apologize to his body. He glanced down to check the time he’d been jogging for; the bright, blue text read 08:53. He had to endure for nearly thirty-one more minutes – without music to help the time go by. So be it. He wanted to feel every second go by; his mind needed to learn to concentrate. The only sound entering his ears today would be that of his feet striking the treadmill and the long gasping of his lungs. That much was final.
He glanced down again at the display; it read 32:21.
“Eight more minutes,” he thought to himself.
By now, his legs felt heavier than ever. Instead of them carrying his weight, Mr. Sehgal felt like he was the one carrying an extra twenty-eight pounds. He felt the Vastus muscles in his leg throbbing with every stride, begging him to stop. His calves further threatened to cramp up, a problem he’d dealt with far too often in the past. Agony was his existence.
“Why are you doing this to yourself?”, asked a voice in his mind. “Just stop”.
It was a trap set up by the comfort-loving side to his mind…testing whether he could follow through with his decisions…trying his will.
“What’s your why? Come on, now…tell me!”, it asked mockingly.
Mr. Sehgal searched. He tried looking for an answer in his mind.
Nothing.
“Come on, you’ve done enough already. Why’re you being so hard on yourself?”, it asked.
“Because I’ve cheated myself too often and too much!”, he shouted back.
Suddenly, every voice in his mind went silent. The answer rattled everything inside him. He’d just spoken the cold, hard truth. The type of truth the comfortable mind didn’t want to acknowledge. But by doing so now, he felt lighter. He felt his legs return; he felt no stomach pain, and most importantly, he felt no guilt. He knew he was improving, and by coming to peace with the cookies, hamburgers, nacho fries, burritos, and sauces he’d eaten daily, he could now truly focus on his future.
The time now read 40:20. He turned off the machine, gulped down all his water, and took a picture of the display to keep in his personal photo collection. It would be the first of many more. With tired eyes, he turned off the gym room lights, set aside his belongings, and collapsed on top of his bed. He knew he’d conquered his mind, and now had full control of it. He closed his eyelids. Tomorrow would present another opportunity to better himself…
