Eating right and exercising regularly is hard. Really hard. Temptations to eat high fat, high sugar, high yum-factor food crosses my path several times a day. When the alarm goes off way too early to be awake let alone exercising, I don’t always leap out of bed into my exercise gear.
So why do I do it? Why do I say “no” to Ben and Jerry and “yes” to Tony Horton and Sean T? One word: Energy. When I don’t exercise and eat too much junk, I feel bad. I feel bad in every dimension. I’m tired. I’m moody. I’m unfocused. I feel guilty and fat and bloated and just plain yucky. I’m not the best mom, wife, or person I can be.
I’m not going to lie. I can be vain with the best of them. I want to look good, but the older I get it’s even more important to feel good. We are an extremely active family involved in sports and recreational road races, yoga, surfing, swimming, paddle-boarding, and more. I want to have the energy to do it all.
On a recent run in Napa Valley. I love exploring new places on an early morning run.
It’s more than just physical energy, though. I used to be a moody quite often. In order to maintain a strong emotional connection to the people who matter the most to me, I need to keep my physical body in shape. I need to keep blood sugar levels consistent so I don’t turn into “mean mommy” who is angry and snaps at the kids.
I just got married, and time and energy with my new husband is critical to me. I want to still have energy left after the kids go to bed to connect with him and have meaningful time together. Believe it or not, what I ate for breakfast, and whether I exercised that day can impact that time together. It’s all connected to quantity and quality of energy.
With my husband John after we just ran the Tinkerbell 10K on our honeymoon. We also ran the Half Marathon the next day.
While my waistline and cholesterol level are very important in my life, it’s the quality of my energy that is rising to the top as my main motivator to make the choices I make on a daily basis.
What motivates you?
