My Why and Other Musings

Shari talks a lot about finding your "why".  No one will find the drive to make life changes without defining the reason for making the changes.  I listen, I really do.  I thought I had my why.

     I don't.

     I lost it.  I can't remember my why.

I went to a mini seminar at my box last week.  The topic was finding the motivation to reach your goals in the gym.  And the first of four bullet points was to Find Your Why.   He even went around the room and asked everyone what theirs was.  The one thing he added was that "losing weight" cannot be your why.  It has to have an emotional attachment to it.  I heard someone say he wanted to compete, one lady said Crossfit makes her feels younger, one said she wants to be able to do longer and more challenging hikes.  There were a lot of reasons.  I was last and couldn't remember mine.  I finally came up with "I wanted to be able to keep up with my kids".  And that is true.  When I started nearly 4 years ago, that was one of the reasons I wanted to do it.  But now I do a pretty good job of keeping up with them and showing them that I want to live a healthy lifestyle.

     So, I lost my why.  I need a new one.

- I thought about this a lot over the last week.  I do want to lost weight.  But, as my coach said, that doesn't hold enough emotion to be my why.  I did think of one though.  I'm tired of being out of breath and hurting all the time.  It's tiring and it's embarrassing.  I can be better.  I want to *feel* good.  And that has enough emotion to bring tears to my eyes when I think of it.

     And now it's in writing.

- The second point was to choose your community.  This is a tricky one.  Even my coach said this is the hardest of them all.  I've chosen part of my community to be Crossfit Post Falls.  There are the most supportive people in there.  They are the people who cheer and help lead me to be better.  Many many people in there have become good friends.

     But everyone has friends and family outside the gym.  To really be successful a person needs to be around the people who will help them reach their goals.  Don't hang around with the people who are going to drag you down.  Fortunately, I have few folks who don't support my goals. I think. I don't have anyone who pushes me to go to the bar.  There is a lot more junk food at my work than I should be around, but there isn't much I can do about that.  I have to change my work routine a little to avoid it all, and I can do that with a little effort.  The people I hang around with may not be on the same path as I am, but they love that I'm on this path and they are supportive.  My mom even changes the way she cooks when I'm coming over.   I think my community is pretty great.

- The third was pick a goal and track progress.  I wrote about picking a goal not too long ago.  I have to revisit and revise that one, but I've already started.  I have progress pictures and I log every workout in WODTogether.  I'm adding a goal to step up my running/walking again, and some weekly pull-up practice.   I spent a lot of time in the Open Gym time while I was training for Weightlifting and the extra gym time was super.  As soon as it was over though, I went right back to my old schedule.  I'm revising my gym schedule.  I'll be spending some time in the open gym time every time I'm in the gym.

   The goal I am choosing though, is to do another Olympic Weightlifting competition.  I really enjoyed that and I'd like to lift heavier.  Part of reaching that goal includes losing weight.  I'll be able to lift more if I'm not carrying all of this around all the time.

- And the final one was to celebrate small victories.  This one is hard for me.  Coach said that getting to the gym is not a small victory.  I disagree.  It might not be for him, but there are some of us who wouldn't do anything at all if not for getting to the gym and making it there is a daily challenge.  But I also see his point.  Getting there isn't enough.  It's the beginning of going though the motions.  I don't want to just go through the motions.  I don't celebrate getting to the gym.  I don't celebrate anything really.  Not like I used to.

     His point was not to celebrate every workout, or every round, but every single rep.  Every rep is a celebration.  I'm going to try to remember that when I hit the gym tonight.

Weightlifting Event

The weightlifting event this weekend was awesome.  So awesome.  I am so excited that I was a part of that.  Our gym/club was well represented with lifters (three of us were first timers), and the crowd was filled with Crossfit Post Falls members and family and friends of our lifters.  We have the best and most supportive community.  As soon as I figure out how to down load and post the videos that someone took of me, I will post them.

I truly look forward to doing more of this.  I've got to lose some weight and increase my lifts to get my scores higher.  I'm oddly excited for the challenge.