Category: Motivation

I need to run tonight after work. It’s now become not only a habit for me to run every other day, but my body feels like it actually needs it. My mind, however, isn’t always into it. Today, for example, my mind wants to go home after work and relax. I’m having to rely on a trick I’ve been employing to make myself enjoy doing things I otherwise don’t want to do or don’t like. I’m having to pretend that I am looking forward to running today.

Do  you know what’s weird about that? It’s actually working. As the day is going on, I’m finding myself looking forward to running. It’s going to be nice and cool outside, and I know that the run will feel good when I’m done as it always does. I haven’t yet experienced a real “Runner’s High,” but I do feel a sense of accomplishment after a run as well as feeling generally good. Maybe that’s the high they refer to. Maybe I’m expecting too much?

I know it’s hard to get moving sometimes. Even though I run a minimum of three times a week, I know many others who run 6-7 times a week. How they do that is a testament to their willpower, dedication, and motivation. It motivates me when I see them hitting the road every day. Whenever I really don’t feel like getting out there, I remind myself that I don’t do this every day and that I will get the next day off from running if I can just get it done today. I also think about how hard it is to get back into it after two days off in a row. If anything, these all help to get me out there.

Back to today’s run: I’m hoping to hit 80 push ups today if I have the energy and to go my usual 3.5 miles. I won’t be setting any speed records, but I will try for sub 9:30’s if at all possible (but I won’t be disappointed if I don’t). I’ll just be happy that I got out there and got it done.

Listen up, troops: this post is being written directly for you. To you. Listen up!

If you’re one of the many veterans who said, “I’m not running again after I get my DD-214” and you held firm to that, you may have a problem. That problem may be the same problem I had, one that I allowed myself to develop and didn’t do anything about for many years: I was fat and out of shape.

I was fat and happy, as they say, and why not? I stayed in shape for the entire time I was in the Marines, and I PT’d the requisite three to five times a week for nearly 12 years. That’sa  long freaking time! So I figured that I earned some time off to eat, drink, and sit on the sofa. There’s one huge problem with that: I gained weight so fast, I have stretch marks. And I know I’m not the only one.

If this is similar to what you’ve experienced, then I have good news for you: you can change this. The next part is the honest truth and you know what I’m about to say (but I’m going to say it anyway): you need to eat right and get some exercise. That means lay off the pogue bait and get some PT done.

It’s not easy. But you already knew that. It’s going to take a lot of dedication, motivation, and perseverance. But again, you already knew that. So what’s missing? What is keeping you from starting?

If it’s your age, I want to tell you some more good news: FUCK THAT. You’re not too old. I’m 49 and I run 3-5 miles every other day. I lost 115 lbs. You can do it, too. It just takes eating right and moderate exercise (and note that the exercise isn’t for weight loss, but to make your heart stronger). A 69 year old neighbor and former Marine is getting healthy through diet and strength exercises. If an old Vietnam vet tanker can do it, SO CAN YOU!

If it’s because you have physical limitations, either as a result of your service or even if it’s not, then yes, you have some more challenges than the rest of us, but most of that is in your head. Eating right is easy for ANYONE, and that doesn’t require exercise. I lost 110 lbs of my 115 lbs without a single step of exercise. Seriously.

I don’t bullshit on this blog. Everything I did, and everything I do to get healthy and lose weight is here. I don’t just present the good news: my challenges, fears, and obstacles are all here, too. We all face them. What separates us from those who fail is how we push through the challenges.

If you’re a veteran, you’ve already proven to yourself that you can get though boot camp. Some of us have had to prove ourselves in even more extreme ways. Getting healthy and fit pale in comparison. All it takes is for you to get going.

Need a push? Need some moto? PM or email me! Leave a comment! I’ve got your six!

For some people, staying motivated in a new lifestyle is difficult. I read about it or hear about it on Facebook almost daily. Everyone who sets out with the best of intentions to get fit or healthy often faces moments of doubt and weakness. I have faced down these doubts and had to learn to push through them.

How I get through them may or may not work for everyone. We all have our reasons for wanting to get healthy (mine have been posted here often) or wanting to get fit, and as varied as those reasons are, so are the motivations behind them. Further, the way we face down the obstacles to our success is as unique as we are. I use my determination and set my mind on a goal and I don’t quit until I reach it. I am very single-minded when it comes to my goals, and I will easily forego any distraction to reach my goal. This doesn’t work for everyone, however.

Some people analyze the obstacle and  formulate a detailed strategy to overcome it. Others pretend the obstacle isn’t there and keep pushing onward. Then there are those who let the obstacles get the better of them and feel crushed under the weight of the pressure to succeed. Regardless of the method, people who successfully stay motivated persevere and get past the difficulties and harness the success instead of concentrating on the challenge.

In my experience, success has come when I set my mind to a goal but allow myself to fail. Heck, I expect it. I tell myself that I will lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date, yet there’s this little voice in the back of my head that says, “And if you don’t make that date, it’s completely okay. Just keep working until you do.” It seems to work for me. I’ve met a few goals and passed the date on a few others. The one thing I never did was quit.

Another thing that has helped me is to focus on the many different data points that are all measures of my progress. Most people look to a scale to gauge their progress in a healthy lifestyle. This is a mistake. There are so many things to consider, many of which will provide feedback when other areas are stalled. Some of these are:

• Your body measurements (waist and shirt sizes). When your pants begin to feel looser, you’re making positive progress.
• Your blood work/physical results. It’s hard to argue with improving blood chemistry.
• How you feel. Eating healthier and exercising has positive effects on the body and the mind.
• Your appearance. Your body will begin to reconfigure. Three months after I began running, I have started noticing my body getting leaner and the loose skin I have from my weight loss is getting tighter very quickly.

Look for the positives and harness them. The positives are your successes, and as long as you keep your mind on them, you will find it easier to keep yourself motivated.

If all else fails, fake it. When I first started running, I disliked it. After a few runs, I had an internal dialogue with myself and I decided that I needed to change my attitude about running to become more successful at it while I was building the habit to run regularly. I decided to fake it until I actually liked it. The crazy part? It worked! I now enjoy running, and often I find myself smiling while running when I realize how easy it is for me now.

Find your motivation. Work on it. If you find yourself demotivated or lacking in motivation, talk to someone. Talk to a friend, family member, or reach out and talk to someone online. Heck, feel free to message me! Don’t wallow in it, and don’t let your doubts or lack of motivation consume you.

Like many older people, after I had reached a certain age, I thought it was too late for me to consider getting healthy or fit every again. I made the classic mistake of confusing health and youth, incorrectly equating youth with health. To be honest, when I began my own journey to get healthier and fit, I was incredulous yet hopeful. I had hoped for the sort of results I eventually got, but I held out little real expectations of success. Little did I know I would be one day be looking back at what I’ve accomplished for having stuck to Whole30 and Paleo.

I know how you feel. I was there. I was the fat guy sitting in the chair wondering how life had passed him by and how he would never feel healthy or fit again.

Don’t make the same mistake I made. It doesn’t matter what your age is: you can do this. My neighbor who is well into his late 60’s recently started the Paleo lifestyle, and he’s down over 30 lbs in the past six months and is feeling great. He says his standard of living has improved immensely since starting. I write about how much more I can do now and how much richer my life is as a result of me losing the weight and getting fit, so I won’t belabor the point.

It’s in your power to make the changes necessary to get healthy. You just have to want it badly enough. The keys are in your hands. The switch inside you can only be flipped by you.

I recently found Dr. Andrea Dinardo’s Blog and it is full of a lot of great information! There was one thing that stuck out to me as being incredibly profound and important as it relates to getting healthy and fit: Focus on what is right.

A lot of us get to the point where we realize we need to diet and lose weight to get healthy and do some exercise to get fit. That’s kind of obvious. What many of us fail to do, however, is to also focus on what’s right. Using my example, here are the things I felt were right and that I was able to harness in my journey to getting fit and healthy:

• I had great information from my cousin Sarah and my friend Matt. This information was like having a road map out of a strange and foreign city.
• I had the love and support of an incredible woman who took on the journey with me and helped hold me up when I was weak.
• I had the motivation, dedication, and perseverance to succeed.

So often, people focus on the things that are wrong and get lost in the details of how wrong things are. It’s easy to obsess over what’s wrong. For some reason, our brains are like a marble in a funnel that turns tighter and faster as it gets to the bottom. Focusing on what’s wrong seems to be a magnet for a domino effect of more negative thoughts.

I’m not saying ignore what’s wrong. Once you’ve identified what’s wrong, formulate a solution and then focus on what’s right and build on it. It’s easier to build on what’s right than to cover up what’s wrong.

---

I hope I got that right, Dr. Dinardo!

Nobody changes anything about themselves until it becomes apparent that the change is necessary from either a practical or survival standpoint. Alcoholics and drug addicts describe this as hitting rock bottom; the point at which they realize that either they make a change or they will die without. As a person who had an unhealthy relationship with food and didn’t have enough self-respect to care for my health and fitness, I had to hit a certain rock bottom of my own.

I made a change in my life because I felt I needed to. I was ready. Everything about the way I felt and the way I was living was leading me to an early grave. My weight was phenomenally high and my fitness level laughably low. Something needed to happen quickly. I had come to the realization that the change needed to be immediate and severe.

When you get to a point where a severe change in your lifestyle is better than any other alternative, you know you’ve dug yourself a pretty deep hole. I was so far under that looking up, the sky looked like a period on a black sheet of paper. I knew it was going to be a struggle to climb out, but I set a goal for myself to accomplish it with no regard to any obstacles in my path. I would not sabotage myself, and everything I did would be to the benefit of my progress.

I adopted an all-in mindset that those who have never been in the deep hole of despair can never understand. Advice from well-meaning friends and family fall upon deaf ears when they haven’t ever been in a hole so deep. Some may have advice that may even be helpful, but in my experience, most of it isn’t realistic for the situation I found myself in. How could it be? Regardless of the math, losing 10 lbs is much easier than losing over 100 lbs. It’s not just 10 x 10 lbs. It’s an exponential factor of difficulty. I know: I did it.

When you hit your rock bottom, you will know it. You will FEEL it. You will feel the fire growing within you to make a change. That fire will grow and consume you and push you to make the changes you need to make, no matter how untenable you think those changes may be. You will do what it takes, and you will reach your goals.

Will you get healthy and fit? Not until that switch inside you is flipped. The dark and secret truth about that switch: only you can flip it. The question then becomes: how long will you go before you flip the switch, and is your body able to hold out that long before irreversible damage is done?