Find Your Why

Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend a speaking engagement where Danny Cahill was the keynote speaker. For those of you not familiar with Danny Cahill he was the Season 8 Biggest Loser winner and set the record for the most weight lost in a season. Although I don't remember everything from his talk, I do remember his four main points and have them posted in my workout room: 1. Lose the Quit, 2. Lose the Lies, 3. Lose the Regrets, and 4. Find Your Why. The past couple weeks I have struggled with finding my why. I know I want to lose weight. I know I want to run another marathon. I know I want to qualify for Boston, but I often times wonder why. I find my mind wandering to how great it would look to others, and that is when I realize that pleasing or impressing others is not a strong enough or motivating enough "why". If I am ultimately not doing it for me, the habits won't last. A great example of this is a biggest loser challenge we participated in with friends three years ago. That is the most weight I have lost in years. I worked out every day, sometimes twice a day. I ran, did Jillian workouts, and logged EVERYTHING I ate. In a matter of less than three months, I was down 12 lbs and loving how I looked and felt. This lasted for months and before I knew it, I had put all the weight back on. What was my biggest motivator - competition. Once the competition and chance of winning disipated, so did my motivation. This just goes to show that the "why" needs to be personal, not for others, but for me. I have lots of reasons why I should do these things, but for now, I am not sure if any of them qualify as my "why".

I did accomplish my first long run in weeks today. I ran 5.86 miles. The last three were at a 8.01 pace. It felt good. The biggest issue was the chaffing. Yes, it apparently can even happen running indoors. If I want to run Fargo, I need to start training tomorrow. Lots of decisions need to be made tonight.

On another note, I ate pizza for the first time in weeks (so much for my no wheat rule). I physically felt terrible after I ate it so I think there is definitely something to this no wheat diet. Still working on better eating. Family movie night last night was a whirlwind of popcorn, chips, and sixlets...great training food. I just need to keep telling myself : energy in, energy out!