Find Your WHY

SkinnyRuthy

Yesterday was my son's 5th grade graduation. It was a whole ordeal with awards, a potluck dinner, slideshow, speech by the principal...

Well, during the speech, the principal encouraged the students in many different areas, but touched on something that I found to be quite inspiring. She asked the kids to think about something they were really really good at. Think about what they have done to get better. Think about how much they liked it. Think about how much they did this particular thing they enjoyed...

She then said, I don't want you to focus so much on the fact that you are good at this particular thing but to focus on the WHY. Why do you do it? Why do you get up early in the morning to train harder? Why is it important to you? Why do you care? Why do you want to be better? And then she said, I want you to Find Your Why.

So, my dear fitness pals, I'm going to take her words of wisdom to 5th graders about to embark upon middle school adventures, and relate it to our fitness challenges.

What is YOUR why? Why do you care? Why do you do it? Why do you get up early in the morning to work out, train harder? Why is it important to you? WHY do you want to be better?

FIND YOUR WHY.

Here is my why:

I care because my health is important. I do this mfp 'thing' because not only does it daily encourage me to be better but I find being on the same page with other people makes me stronger...I have more strength and then can give more strength. I get up and do my challenges and work out because I know I will see results. It is important to me because every day that goes by is another one that I had a chance to be better and honestly, the time is going to pass anyways...why not make the most of it? I want to be better because I have spent over a decade not being my best and feeling awful for it. Who wouldn't want to know what it feels like to feel great...light...happy with the reflection in the mirror.

What is YOUR why?

socioseguro

Many thanks for sharing.

my WHY

I want to be healthy and keep myself healthy for my family and my own sake

MFP is a wonderful tool. I read MFP message boards to motivate me with all the postive energy from MFP members.

I exercise to feel better with myself and my body. I workout to feel stronger and healthier than before

Good luck in your journey

bdruggles

My WHY at the moment is to reclaim who I was before my marriage went to hell and took my self-esteem with it. I used to run around with confidence. I used to wear shorts. Short shorts. I used to love to jump into the pool and swim. Now, I feel so gross, and I am so uncomfortable in my body that I'm wearing jeans when it's 110 out and last summer I only gave in and went swimming when the kids were begging me to because the pool was closing soon and there was almost no one there to see me. It was sad. I intend for this summer to be a whole lot better. I intend to have fun.

Regaining a little control over my life and being mindful of what I eat is a step in that direction.

goalss4nika

My Why:

To learn how to love me and not look for love or acceptance in another human being.

To be confident in myself in all aspects of my life.

Just to be around for my children.

PinkyPan1

My "Why" appeared in January via a heart attack. Totally out of now where and I am surprised it did not kill me. It was quite a wake up call and I have decided to embrace my second chance at life. I am healthier, stronger and loving the new me.

Brabacious

This is where I struggle.

I have no "why." Mostly just "because I have to." And that isn't cutting it.

I don't think I'm depressed or anything. I'm certainly not happy. I think it has to do with the fact that losing weight feels like a faraway dream. I've been dreaming about losing weight since I was a 10 year old 200 pounder. I have no idea what it is like to be thin. No idea what it is to be healthy.

I kinda grasp at pictures of me just 5 years ago or so when I was 70 lbs lighter. I looked so good! Even at like 280 lbs I was cute even if I was fat. And that's where I want to get. Thats my first big goal. Back to where I was at 30. That feels a bit more concrete.

Right now it's just trying to learn exactly what I am doing wrong on a day to day basis. Really paying attention. Not feeling ashamed and trying not to be hard on myself. What did I do today that I can do better tomorrow? It's so slow and it doesn't mean huge immediate losses on the scale but I think it's what I need to do.

I need to not just lose weight; I need to heal myself.

But I still can't point at one thing and say "why." Maybe just a million little "why's" that change on a daily basis. Maybe that's ok because it fits the microstages of healing and losing and getting healthy.

Tinker_Aria

Hello

my WHY :

I've lost a big part of my life months ago, I mean I've lost myself.

I need to learn how to love me again, to be proud of something. My new lifestyle is a challenge for me. I want to prove that I can do something of my life !

It's very difficult to explain. My heart and my soul still broken. Workout hard is a way to cure them.

cwolfman13

I want to live a long and fruitful life. A ****ty diet and lack of physical activity is highly likely to result in an earlier dismisal from life than I'm hoping for...that's worst case...best case scenario would be that I'd be alive, just in really poor health.

I see way too many people who are my age (almost 40) who seem like they're practically on their death beds...sick all of the time, can't even walk the stairs at work without panting like a dog, they think they're computer bag is "heavy", have the aches and pains of an 80 year old, etc, etc, etc. The funny thing is, these people all just think they're getting older and this is just a part of that and a part of their fate and what not...never mind the fact that they've let themselves grow to mammoth proportions and haven't lifted a finger in exercise for over a decade plus. They have total control and don't realize it...I can't imagine being content with such an existence.

I had kids late in life and I want to be around for them as long as possible; I want to see those boys grow up to become men and those men to carry on with a family of their own...I have a 2 y.o. and 4 y.o. and I'm planning on hopefully being around when they have my grand-kids.

I don't want to spend my retirement years in ill health...I want to spend them with my wife traveling the world and being active and living the dream.

The list could go on and on...but basically proper diet and regular exercise is the fountain of youth...so why not?