Why we do what we do

I was talking to my wife today about our fitness journey and about how far we've come and we were deciding the direction we wanted to go. As most of you know, my journey started last August when I turned 40. My weight at that time was 260 lbs and I wanted to get my weight down to around 225 lbs, I thought that would make me feel better and would be a weight I could managed for the rest of my life. Here I am, almost at my 1 year anniversary of that life changing choice, and my weight is 210 lbs!! My goals have changed, I now want to weigh less than 200 lbs and get my body fat down below 10%. My wife, Camille, asked me why I changed my goals. She asked me if I would be happy if I didn't reach my new goal. I had to think for a minute, I had to look at where I started and where I am now and I realized that YES, I WOULD still be happy if I didn't reach that goal.

I think sometimes we all get caught up in a number on the scale or a perception we have in our mind of how we think we should look. The truth is, most of us are probably never going to be happy with ourselves, we are our own worst critics and we will always be able to find some "flaw" we think needs to be fixed. We lose sight of why we started something. When we reach our initial goal we then look for other reasons to not like ourselves, so we set new goals. We drive ourselves to succeed but we also set ourselves up for failure because once we get there, something else will be wrong. We never stop to acknowledge the great things we've already accomplished. I had to step outside myself to realize this. I started looking at what I did accomplish in just one year. I have lost 50 pounds! I have lost 16% of my body fat! I have lost a lot of inches! I feel great!

Even though I have accomplished those things for myself, when I look around I see that my family is now healthy and feeling great also! My wife is getting fit and healthy in spite of her Multiple Sclerosis. My children are living a healthy lifestyle and eating good food. My parents, who are 66 years old are working out and changing their lives. My mom is controlling her Type 2 diabetes she's not letting it control her. My sister and sister in law are both making changes in their lives to get fit and healthy and to finally feel good! I have met incredible people, through Beachbody and being a coach that have touched my life. That wasn't my goal when I started but it is the result after one short year!

I still have goals, it's what drives me but I will not let it consume me or belittle the great things I've already accomplished in my life. In this journey I've discovered that the best goals are the ones you never knew you should be reaching for. Those are the ones that truly change your life.