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| When you don't have a babysitter...just take her running with you! |
In my never ending
quest to be fit and to eat healthfully, it’s not so much a matter of looking
good as the be-all and end-all source of motivation. The idea of being physically strong directly
translates into being mentally strong and that is what drives me and motivates
me. I feel great after fitting in a
physical activity for the day and knowing I have fueled my body with healthy
food. I have a lot on my plate these days,
no pun intended, and I need a strong vehicle to handle it, or at the least be
able to prioritize and manage what is the most important. I have had many hats to wear in my years, but
at the top of the list is my role as a mother of three kids and as a wife. These two roles alone require me to be
physically and mentally strong.
I love to
run! I am, by no means, a pro at it, but
I am a running enthusiast. Before I was
pregnant with my 3rd child, I was well into a great running
streak. I was running all sorts of long
distance races and made decent time.
During my pregnancy, especially at the latter end, I had to slow down
due the physical demands my pregnant body could no longer endure. After 5 months of the baby’s birth, I am slowly
finding my “running feet” again, but it has been a slow recovery. I stay patient with what my body can do each
day and with each day; I improve just a little bit more. There are certainly days where even the
shortest of runs can just kick my butt, but I keep going. What keeps me going? The energy and clarity I gain after each
run. I am more productive and I feel
stronger to tackle on any stress.
Eating
healthy and not feeling like being on a “diet” is very important to me. My motivation to eat as healthfully as
possible is the same motivation as exercising; it simply feels great. When I eat fresh, healthy prepared foods from
breakfast, lunch to dinner, I have more energy and I have better focus. It’s not about going on a diet; so much as it
is making good choices on foods that work for me. You need good fuel to be able to do challenging
physical activities. For example, a
typical breakfast for me could be a bowl of oatmeal, a fruit and protein smoothie
or egg scramble with veggies. These foods
are loaded with nutritional value. I don’t
go crazy though where I don’t have a treat here and there. I do occasionally cook whole wheat pancakes
for the kids as treat, but now-a-days hardly ever because pancakes, although they
taste good, they just do nothing for me or my family nutritionally.
The first
step in finding Motivation is quite simply that you have to Want It. You can't fake it and you can't wait for it to begin. What is it that you want out of your
life? Are you willing to carve out sometime
in the early morning for physical activity to reap the rewards of a stronger
physical and mental you? Are you willing
to cook healthy foods, so that you may fuel your body for a stronger physical
and mental you? If the answer is Yes,
act on it. Sure, setbacks will happen,
embrace the setbacks as they come, move on and forward stronger. Finding motivation and keeping motivation
gets easier as a lifestyle choice. As my
British friend and workout queen, Jane, use to tell me, “now, off you go!”
