Renewed Motivation

Sometime back, I wrote a blog post about motivation.  And it still rings true.  Motivation is a key factor to anything I do.  Whether it be an attempt at getting fit or striving for a personal goal in another area of my life.  Motivation is a driving force.  It helps propel us forward.  This is something I have learned a little more about since my last blog post about motivation.  And the person who taught me this lesson, is only 8 months old as of this writing.

Little did I know that 8 months ago, the smallest person I have ever held would also be one of the biggest teachers I would encounter in my day to day walk.  And I thank her on a daily basis.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't learn something new from her as she is learning everything new for the first time.  And motivation has been one of the key topics that she demonstrates to me everyday.

For example, she is crawling/scooting across the floor now.  She will literally sit on one side of the room and see something (anything really) that catches her eye, and she's off.  She may take 5 minutes to traverse our apartment's living room.  But when she gets to her destination, she will sit up with a triumphant smile on face marking what looks like a small victory to us.  But to her, she just climbed a mountain.  And if you interfere in any way, usually by picking her up and relocating her in the room.  First chance she gets, she will be heading right back to her original destination (at least until she is sidetracked).  At first it appeared she was stubborn.  But a second glance showed me that she is just simply "motivated".

And her motivation keeps driving her forward.  The other afternoon, she crawled across the floor and pulled up against the couch until she was standing (this is only the second or third time she's done this solo).  It took her several attempts to stand and remain standing.  But no matter how many tumbles she took, she got right back up and tried again.

I started relating her determination to my own goals in life.  When I started this blog in 2012, my drive was to loose weight.  Here I am 2 years later, still working at it.  Not nearly as bad off as I was originally, but still not where I wanted to be.  And then I examined why I haven't reach my goals.  I lost sight of my motivation.  I became complacent and basically quit working out.  Sure, I wasn't trashing my diet completely, as I still watched what I ate.  But I was REALLY even trying.  Then I looked at my daughter.

And I regained sight of my motivation.  Truth of the matter is, when my wife and I got married 10 years ago (as of May 2014), I weighed 145 pounds.  At my heaviest I was breaking 260 pounds which was about two and a half years ago.  Watching my daughter try her best to just move across the room, spoke to me on a level I never really thought of before.  My thought was that one day she's going to want to run across the yard with Dad.  Or she'll want to go for a ride on Daddy's shoulders while Mommy and Daddy go on a walk.  And in my current shape, doing those things would be difficult.  Not impossible, but difficult.

I don't want to look back in 20 years and think of these times as "the times Daddy couldn't keep up".  I owe it to my daughter to be better than that.  She deserves to have those experiences with Mommy and Daddy.  End of story.  And if I don't do something about it now, I will never do something about it.  Even as I write this, I can feel the emotion starting to stir deep down. And I guess when it comes right down to it.  I want to be around for her.  Later in our lives.  I am not old by any means.  I am 32 years old.  I have plenty of time to make the change, but only if I start now.  My original motivation was to look good, look fit, and be healthy.  Now it has shifted to be there for your family (long term), be there for your family (long term) and get healthy.

"Why put off for tomorrow what you can do today?"

Find your motiviation.  It's different for us all.  And make a change.

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The Building Blocks of Life: Water

We all know how important water is for our daily diet.  Most of us have been taught since we were children that we all need a certain amount of water intake a day in order to help maintain a proper diet, etc.  And I am not refuting this teaching by any means.  Because my logic is, our bodies are mostly made of up water at the very basic level.  Common sense would dictate that we NEED to take in water.

I am not going to tell you that you have to take in 8-12 cups of water a day.  That is entirely up to you.  Your preference.  As I states before, I am NOT a doctor or a medical authority of any kind (I'm a computer geek just trying to get healthy).  For "official" advice consult your doctor.  Give this URL a read sometime from the Mayo Clinic as it covers daily intake etc.  Instead I will tell you what has made a difference in my life.

My Story:

I weighed myself yesterday and found that I have lost a total of 11 pounds within the last 7 weeks.  And I must be honest that I haven't been actually trying to loose weight.  We went on vacation, ended up doing a bunch of walking and drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated and the water habit seemed to make it's way back home with us.  Basically I replaced my soft drinks and sodas with water.  And a couple weeks ago when I hit the scale for the first time in forever, I was amazed to see that I had already lost several pounds.  Sure, the vacation walking helped me.  But I didn't sustain that behavior during the weeks after my vacation (although we have since started back up), the only real difference was changing my soft drinks over to water.  We don't snack much here at home.  So we rarely have the "bad" foods we should probably distance ourselves from.  So it definitely helps that we don't keep that stuff here in the house.

My Result:

I find that by replacing the sugary, soft drinks with water even my appetite is affected.  I don't get hungry quite as easy (or quickly), I have less of a desire to snack (when we do have snack foods).  And I feel better overall.  I have had less headaches and joint aches since being off of the soft drinks as well.  I even rest better now.  Does this mean that I haven't had a Pepsi or another various soft drink.  No way.  I have about one a day.  And that's really about all I need (or want).  I have, in a sense; taught myself moderation of soft drinks.  And I still have a cup of coffee about every morning with breakfast.  So basically 2 caffeinated beverages a day is what I limit myself too. And personally, I feel great.

And the awesome thing about it was, I saw how quickly I dropped a few pounds that otherwise I probably would have killed myself over in the gym.  But you see without making a change, there would have been no catalyst there to help ignite a little weight loss.  And as a result of seeing a few pounds drop off the scale, it ignited a desire to push a little harder and loose a few more in the process.  As a result, I've started working out on my lunch breaks.  Days where I can't go to the gym, I use a small set of free weights I have here and I utilize Xbox Fitness on the Xbox One game console to sneak in a lunchtime workout (when I can).  And being sore has never felt better.

So at least in my case, I don't adhere to a "rule" or a set amount of water.  I drink a glass of water when I get thirsty and with my meals.  Do I NEED more water? Maybe.  Am I comfortable with my current intake.  Yes, I am.  My challenge to you.  Start replacing one of your "non-water" beverages a day with a glass of water.  Do that for a week, and see if you don't start feeling better.  From there start working your way down.  I understand dropping the soft drinks cold turkey is hard.  Been there, done that.  It's a hard, tough process.  But the payoff is well worth it in the end.

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