My Uncle just got a nice write up in the Reno newspaper. At 62, he completed the Death Ride - 130 miles up (and down) 5 famous California passes. He's in great shape and his discipline is inspiring to me.
One of the areas where I struggle is in my personal fitness. Over the last 7 years or so, my weight has trended up and the trend really accelerated after I quit smoking 3 1/2 years ago.
Two years ago I went on a fitness jag, and even though I had a wonderful trainer, I wasn't smart about the way I approached it. She offered me 2 calorie plans - 2100 per day (easier to sustain) or 1900 per day (faster results). I thought "if 2100 is good and 1900 is better, why not aim for 1400 or 1500?" After about 3 weeks, she asked to see my food log and then gave me the stink eye - my body had shut down because it thought I was starving - especially because I was doing 8 or 9 workouts a week with one rest day. That 3 week period of no weight loss - which was my fault - really killed my motivation.
This ties in with a recurring theme for me - always trying to do things "my way".
Anyway, I ended up not achieving my goal. After a while, I stopped going to the gym, cranked back up my eating and drinking and gained the 50 pounds back that I had lost, plus an extra 10 for good measure.
We rejoined the gym over the weekend and this morning I was up at 5:00 for a workout. I even have a lot of the workouts written down from my trainer and plan on using those.
My publicly stated goal is to drop 50 pounds by my 50th birthday in November.
This time, I'm going to be smarter about my approach.
