Why Do We Do It? And Athleta Inspiration!

Why do we train?  Why do we workout and push ourselves physically?  Why run?  Spin?  Lift weights?  Eat healthy? Seek balance in our life?  Why do you do it?  Of the top of my head I can think of several good reasons for why I do it:

*  Makes me feel good.
*  Gives me a goal
*  Allows me to feel strong and be ACTIVE in other areas of my life
*  Helps me be more balanced, flexible, and peaceful
*  Give me self confidence
*  Good example to my kids
*  Helps me be self disciplined
*  Accomplish new running goals--be a faster runner!
*  Live a better life.
*  Eating right, exercise, spiritual focus and living a balanced life helps to make our life incredible!

But let's face it folks.  If most of us are being honest, we also do these things because:
*  It helps us look GREAT!
*  Our butts look good in our favorite jeans.
*  We feel sexy when we look in the mirror.
*  It makes our love life more exciting
*  We just feel GOOD about what we look like...feels good to look good.

Go no further for inspiration or motivation to get in shape, be the best you and be healthy!  I picked up an Athleta catalog today while my daughters were in gymnastics and it was all I needed to get pumped up to workout and train hard.  Yes, I want to do these things because it will make me a faster runner and hopefully live a better life but I also would love to keep on looking good!  And where do they get their models for this catalog?!  Seriously, talk about beautiful physique and pictures that encompass strength, mental focus, determination, adventure, balance and peace!  If I had an extra paycheck, I just might buy everything I saw in their catalog.  Instead, I just cut all these inspirational and motivation pictures out and did a little collage art in my running journal.  It didn't take long for this creative exercise and now I feel super charged, motivated, and ready to make the most out of my life, seize the day, and accomplish some big goals for my life!

These pictures inspired  me to be strong, determined, focused..mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

These pictures remind me of my desires to live a more balanced life.  To make time for meditation, prayer, and seeking out love, peace, grace and beauty in everything around me.

These remind me that exercise, healthy living, setting goals, and staying focused will allow me to live the active life I want to live.  I hope to continue to have a life full of adventure, travel, and all kinds of activity.  I want to use my gifts and live life fully with Intention, Passion, Joy, Love and Strength. 

Now time to clean up our mess.  My kids are so done with collage art!

Why do you train, eat healthy, set goals, or workout?  


Do you think that training for something specifically and having a certain goal to work towards helps you stay more focused on your fitness, health, and well being?  


If you have never trained for something or had an athletic or fitness goal, do you have one in mind for the future?  

Amanda

Jillian, Jogging and Joy!

Jillian Micheal's No More Trouble Zones workout this morning!   Trouble zones or no trouble zones, this circuit training workout gets results!  Combined with running, it is cheese and wine perfect.  I first heard of it from a couple of my book club girls who were using it to get rid of the baby fat from pregnancy.  I wanted to do the same, as well as tone up my buns and have more lean muscle.  So glad I tried it out...it's now my favorite workout to do at home.  It is hard for me to carve time out to get the gym so having something like this is ideal.  If you haven't tried it before, I'd highly recommend giving it a go!  

Also, My friend who is a personal fitness trainer in Oregon just started a new blog called Daily FitTip4U.  She's just getting started so check her out! She has lots of knowledge about diet, exercise and overall fitness and health.  

This joy I'm feeling from being back to running and exercise is contagious!  My energy has rubbed off on my kids.  Amazing how when I'm feeling positive and loving, they are positive and loving to each other (at least more than usual).  They were actually playing together nicely this morning and giving thanks for each other in their thankful can instead of ripping each other's hair out (and me wanting to do the same).  My oldest went off to Kinder with a smile on her face and skip in her step.  I could tell she just felt good about her morning and the extra positive vibes we were swimming in this morning.  Can't say enough about how happy this made me...I actually felt like giving myself a pat on the back and saying "Good job Mom!"  instead of the all to often feeling of failure that I've had the past several weeks. 

Jogging. Yes, I said "jogging".  I never liked to refer to my runs as jogs but today I will take a jog with joyfulness! A jog is closer to a run than walking! This injury has humbled me greatly.  I went on my second jog with the double jogger after dropping my oldest off at school. Felt awesome!  We combined it with a leaf hunt for a leaf wreath that we will make.  The jog was filled with many stops and shout outs from my 3 year old.  "Stop the stroller!! Quick!  There is a fine fine leaf!"  Of course the entire earth is covered with fine and beautiful leaves so it made for lots of shouting and lots of stopping to get out and collect the many colors we found.  This actually worked well to help me follow my plan to take it easy and remember that this should be a "light" run.   

So many things in life to find joy in!  Running helps me do just that...find joy.  It helps keep me balanced so I can focus on the important things in life that I might otherwise miss out on. What brings you joy?

Amanda