Mom's and Dad's looking for support

More often than not, I see the same statement come from a lot of people about their fitness journey. "I started up, but then I quit xx amount of days later." Or, " I made it 2-3 months, but couldn't keep up with it." So I started thinking, what is it that keeps people from continuing on? What was it that kept me going on? I read or listened to a small segment by Darren Hardy called Making the shift, I believe that was it, and he touched on the subject of what is it that drives us to pursue something. The main reason, your WHY has to be strong enough.

Imagine that you are on a high rise building and there is a skinny platform about 30 feet long going from your roof top to the building across the way from you. You are asked to cross to the other side. Chances are, you probably don't want to. Now imagine there is a $10 bill on the other side. You might be more tempted, but is it enough to really make you want to do that? Probably not. Now, imagine your child or loved one is in danger on that other side. I'm willing to bet that you are going to do everything you can to get to that side. What changed? Your WHY changed. Crossing a 30 foot platform just for the thrill of it or $10 wasn't a big enough reason why, but a loved in danger might be.

Now, imagine applying that same mindset to your fitness journey and life style change. Is your WHY big enough? I believe one of the reasons why some people don't make it past that few day or couple month period is that there WHY isn't big enough, so the willingness to stick it out and achieve their goal isn't really there.

I understand that at times, life can get in the way and slow us down. An injury, drastic change in your lifestyle routine, but when it boils down it it, your reason will remain the foundation for your success. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or you have been making a lifestyle change for years. Do you truly know why you are exercising? Do you really know why you have chosen to eat a little cleaner? When you understand why it is important to YOU, you are more likely to succeed and stick with it.

Many of you know my WHY already, and if not, I can share that with you later. But for now, I want you to think about yours. If you need a little more help with this, I highly recommend the book Start with Why by Simon Sinek. This will give you a whole new perspective.

Here's some food for thought. Have you ever heard anyone tell you that it is your duty, responsibility, and obligation to be or stay healthy? No! Well then let me be the first.

The reason I say this is because only you have the power to make the changes you need to. A book I have been reading lately called the 10X rule by Grant Cardone expresses many times how the successes in our lives are our duty, responsibility, and obligation.

So what does that mean? How does that tie into your health and well being? We all know what we are supposed to eat, or have a general idea of the good foods we should be putting into our bodies, but sometimes sacrifice that due to time, money, or energy. The same can be said about exercising. We know we should get at a minimum 20-30 minutes a day, but find excuses why we cant. But what happens when we do that? Are bodies feel sluggish, we have no energy, our immune system weakens, and could potentially make ourselves more susceptible to illness.

When we don't take care of ourselves, we are not taking responsibility for our health and well being, we are ignoring our duty to make life easier, no only for ourselves, but for our loved ones around us, and not fulfilling our obligation to be the best version of ourselves we can be.

What makes this hard is we have the freedom of choice. We can choose to do the right thing, or not. But I encourage you, do the right thing. It takes no more effort to choose a healthy salad over a 1/4 pounder with cheese. You can spend 20 minutes thinking of ways to get out of doing an exercise, or just exercise for 20 minutes. It's really that simple.

You have to be your own advocate for your health. Don't rely on others to take that responsibility for you. It's not their obligation, it is yours.

Since you were a child, you always heard, "you need your sleep." It helps your brain grow, recharges your body, etc. But as we get older, and more responsibilities creep in, the duration of sleep you need starts to become less and less. And while we may keep on trucking away, the truth of the matter is, we are not really helping our bodies out. especially if you're trying to lose weight or become more healthy and fit.

You might be asking yourself, how does sleep relate to becoming healthy and fit? There are many different reasons, so I will only touch on a few here.

First, the most obvious. Your body needs to recover. If you are on your feet all day at your job, or have a rigorous exercise routine, your body needs that down time to recharge and rebuild itself. The recommend amount of sleep each night is 7-8 hours. You body also uses this time to rebuild your muscles. This is a good time to slip in a little extra protein before dozing off, your body has that much more to build with.

The more sleep you receive, the less stress you will have. Stress can affect your cardiovascular health, increasing blood pressure and even effect cholesterol levels. This can also slow down your weight loss goals. Nobody wants that. Studies have also shown that when you don't receive enough sleep, your more likely to increase your calorie intake. This is due to the body shifting different hormones that stimulate or suppress appetite.

Lack of sleep can also lead to depression, irritability, anxiety, and emotional instability. Think about times when you are grumpy in the morning, or your are irritated at work. Is it really because you had to wake up or go to work, or was it because you didn't get enough sleep?

And of course, with less sleep, you are more likely to skip your workout in the morning or hit the snooze button a couple of extra times, therefore, not progressing towards your health and fitness goals, making your journey that much harder.

How much sleep do you get each night?

karleeggarner wrote: »

I so need more sleep! However I'm at a point in my life where my 2 and 3 yr old control that. So frustrating! I think I would do just about anything to sleep for 12 solid hours without a single interruption!!! I have been one grouchy momma! Ha!

I remember those days. Mine are 8 and up now, so not so much an issue anymore. Still, I only get about 6 hours a night. I work from 3pm-11pm, with a 1 hour drive. Since my wife is out the door before the kids in the morning, I am on get the kids to school duty, so I am up at 7. If i'm lucky, I get to sleep in on the weekends. I hope you get some sleep soon.