"It is never too late to start."
If you don't start today, it is not too late tomorrow to begin taking care of yourself. And if you're lucky, you will find a source of satisfaction SO MUCH DEEPER than just "exercise," that your perspective on your life and the rest of the world will be positively affected.
- Ed Shepherd, Strava Cycling Ambassador
What do you do? Why do you do it? What drives you? What makes your alarm go off in the morning?
What do I do? I cycle. (Those of you who know me well are aware I'm a triathlete in diaspora.)
Why do I do it? I enjoy the challenges (usually) of going on adventures under my own propulsion.
What drives me? Health, sanity, being a good role model for The Hobbes-it, friendship, romance, satisfaction derived from sheer misery turned results. A million little things that add up to the experience. It breaks me some days, it makes me cry sometimes, but I'm always a better person because of that experience.
What makes your alarm go off? I have the pleasure of being a stay-at-home mom. I'm more flexible in my training schedule than the average bear, as a result, but when I do have to rise early, it's typically for a long ride, or a short ride before The Husband heads to work.
Here's where I'm headed with this: are your goals derailing your routine? Are you just working out to lose weight? Does every workout just feel like simple exercise? An exercise in burning calories?
If losing weight and being healthy is built around running for a specified time on the treadmill every other day for the rest of my life, I can see why people fall off the wagon and hate to exercise. I get it. I used to be that girl.
I was at war with my body, trying to whip it into submission. I counted carbs and skipped lunch, and thought if I could just go torture myself on the treadmill a little after work every couple of days, I could fit into the jeans I wanted to wear. I did yoga... that was my sole foray into the world of real health.
I thought I was healthy, really. I didn't know I was in denial about every single thing my body was meant to do.
I don't care what you believe; your body is a temple.
Flash forward. Paul was training for a half Ironman. For years, I had been aimlessly feeling around the world of nutrition, not knowing what I needed to do. Western diets felt wrong. But nothing else felt right. I kept trying on different nutritional hats, as I trained for a sprint triathlon, pseudo-seriously, for the first time ever. I had begun to make the connection that I had to fuel my body to perform, but still never got the nail on the head. Then, I performed poorly in the race, in spite of my improvements in nutrition and training. Turned out, I was pregnant.
Motherhood, while the downfall of lots of women, was my catalyst. I struggled to successfully breastfeed. Increasingly, I realized I was struggling because of nutrition. As the real kicker, I was training for my first half Ironman at the same time. I was released from doctor's supervision two weeks early, and immediately began working toward my goal that night, swimming laps.
By the morning of my race in October, I had learned a great deal about myself. Emotionally, mentally, I tend to be frail; I avoid conflict, procrastinate, and my willpower can get mushy. Physically, I had realized I could largely tell genetics and culture, and every other possible influence to EFF OFF. Before, I hadn't known my body was powerful, and certainly hadn't known how to harness that power. That day, crossing the finish line, 70.3 miles later, nine months after I gave birth to our baby boy, I was a different person from who I had been in the past.
Exercise became pleasure. Hard work became my substance. My desire to be better (better than myself yesterday...) surpassed the desire to be thin. Over the months and years since, I have evolved. The war with my body? Over. It won, its victory seen in the goals I had wanted all along, and thought I could never achieve. And while those physical presentations of my inward goals (speed... I can't get enough, and always want more. That's my battle now...) are great, my inward goals surpass anything of vanity. And here's the great part... I *like* the way I look in the mirror now, when I take the time to look.
So what drives you? Do you want something other than mere vanity? If you're just exercising, and loathe every moment of it, I suggest you look past the outward goals, and find what kicks your ass out of bed in the morning, what captures your attention and drives you toward excellence. It doesn't have to be competition... that's not it for me, at all. You don't have to ride a bike, or run, or swim. You don't even have to do yoga or strength training, though I recommend those above all else. But whatever you do should make you a better person, someone who loves others, someone with compassion, who wants to leave the world a better place than when you found it. Do something with your body that makes you feel powerful in a peaceful way.
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