You're Missing the Point

'Fitness' is an eye-rolling business sometimes. When people find out I'm in fitness, they perceive me as being a goodie two-shoes when in fact I just love the athleticism of working out. Exercise for me, really, has nothing to do with getting healthy or looking good - those are just awesome side benefits. I just love running and lifting and I love doing that with other people.

If you set out to start exercising to 'get healthy' - I think your missing the point and I think your setting yourself up to fail. Enjoy the pursuit in and of itself.

Living

Tonight my seven year old daughter asked me, "Daddy, what is death?" I said to her, "Mia, it would be like if you went to sleep at night and never woke up."

"Forever?" she asks. "Yes, as far as anyone knows, yes." And I'm kind of unsettled in my response because you want to give your kids really good answers when they ask things and this one is a question I just don't know the answer to. I mean, you wait a good 5 years for them to start talking to you like a person so when the "why this, why that" comes out of their mouths, you want to give good answers. Instead I felt like a 7 year-old.

Thankfully her attention turned elsewhere, but my aging thoughts lingered.

When my daughter talks this way, I get scared. I'm young, but getting older. I want to live a long, healthy life so I can enjoy her for a long, long time. Feeling of vulnerability.

My emotional reaction to this fear day-in and day-out is consistently the same...

I run. I lift. I breathe hard. I sweat. I feel that burning muscular pain. I workout.

For me that workout is a reminder that I am alive and an expression of how I choose to go through life. That workout, in its pure essence, is the second purest expression of living that I know.

SEE

SEE is an acronym I use to describe 3 interrelated necessities in life. Sleep, Exercise and Eat. Might seem just a cute little neat acronym but I've learned to live my life by it.

You see, when I was younger, I was this really good athlete that could get by on just the 'exercise' part. I could be up late, eat what I wanted and still perform at a pretty high level. I was 22.

Now I'm 38. I've always had bad sleeping habits, especially when my 2 kids were very young. My immune system suffered big-time. When your sleep is off, sugar and caffeine become a lifeline of energy. And so the cycle goes...

It got to a point with me where I knew I needed to fundamentally change SLEEP. I trained myself to shut-down earlier - before 10:30. My mental acuity climbed appreciably. My diet improved mostly because I had the energy to care. I stopped getting sick (kids being older helped too) and the quality of my workouts improved dramatically. None of this happened overnight, but over a period of 9 months, I was able to look back and say, "wow - i am in a different place."

At 38, I feel close to that 22. As long as I keep that sleep in check.

So folks, you can pump yourself up to get on a workout regimen all you want. If you're not getting a consistent quality 8 hours of sleep, you won't last more than 3 weeks on that workout program. Unfortunately, that's reality. We're human.

Take a look at your life. Are you treating yourself well? Are you getting the sleep you need and the food your body needs? If not, why not? You might have to dig a little deeper to understand that 'why not' - and I'm not speaking from an almighty pillar. I'm speaking from having been there myself.