Monday, 12 November 2012

FITMOM Ottawa Motivated Mondays - Challenge 8


Welcome to the start of another great week! One that I'm REALLY looking forward to. I'm taking my nearly teenage son to Paris for a quick holiday to visit one of his best friends. I've never talked to anyone who doesn't LOVE Paris, so I'm looking forward to my first visit there!

This week, I thought I would share my personal top Five reasons for working out. Perhaps you have a similar list. Please feel free to share what motivates you to make time for fitness every day.

What motivates me to work out?

5.  To sleep better.  The fitter I am, the better I sleep. And I love to sleep ALL night. When your body is physically exhausted, it has no choice but to shut down and rest, which means that you can sleep all night and feel refreshed and ready to go in the morning. I still enjoy my coffee first thing in the morning, but when I've slept well, I don't NEED it.

4.  To feel happy.  Exercise helps release stress and makes me more patient.  It's how I got through my toddler and preschool days without losing it. And now, with kids right around the corner from entering their teens, I suspect my patience will be tested even more! Feeling less stressed and more patient = a happier mom.

3.  To eat what I want.  I generally eat a well balanced diet, but I have a few weaknesses that I am able to indulge once in a while, because I'm burning calories. I don't have a sweet tooth, but I do love to eat cheese and put cream in my coffee, two things that come with calories! Being active every day allows me to indulge guilt free!

2.  To feel good about myself.  Being fit gives me confidence and energy, makes me stronger and helps me with my volleyball game. All things I love. But it also makes me feel good about my body and the way I look. We all have things we don't like about our appearance and I'm no exception. But, being fit goes a long way to loving myself fully. I didn't really understand this until I had to lose over 50 lbs when I had my first born. Pushing my body through exercise was how I was able to feel much better (and lose the weight!). It also made me more fully appreciate the struggles associated with weight loss.

1.  To stay healthy.  I want to live a long life. My father died of heart disease when I was 21. He's missed graduations, weddings and grandchildren. I don't want to miss any of those things. He loved sports (watching them from his arm chair) and I miss having him on the sidelines of all of the sports his grandchildren play. He had a quadruple bypass at 45, followed by 2 heart attacks. He died before he was 55. I'm almost at the age where we found out he needed open heart surgery and I REFUSE to let heart disease take me down also.

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