So, how are you doing with that New Years ‘fitness’ resolution?
The opportunity to be a Faith & Fitness Magazine contributor has increased the intensity of my fitness journey. I’m seriously searching to find the fun in fitness for the long haul. So far, so good!
This is me at the peak of my weight and the valley of my endurance. Fitness mentors and a new outlook have me on a better path. Five months ago, I posted this photograph of myself on the Internet via my weekly blog and this column. I was banking on peer pressure and public humiliation to help me stay true to my “find the fun in fitness” aspiration. So it’s not surprising that I’ve had many friends reach out and ask, “So how are you doing with that resolution?”
The answer is ‘great!’ – down eleven pounds. I’m craving Hot Yoga and actually enjoying treadmill time watching the Golf Channel (instead of couch surfing.) The best news is that I don’t consider my fitness quest a New Year’s Resolution anymore. This time it’s more than a resolution.
The mantra for my personal and professional life is Blending the Seven Fs: faith, family, finances, fitness, friends, fun and future. Faith is at the beginning, Future at the end…and FITNESS in the center. We routinely use the framework of the Seven Fs in my work as an executive coach – it helps leaders establish positive momentum in their personal and professional lives. Now I have people coaching me…and its working!
Over the first half of my life, I didn’t really understand the importance of taking good care of my fitness. I only thought about fitness when I had silly backaches from yard work. Pick-up basketball ended years ago, so I didn’t notice the rapid decline in endurance. But mostly, I was cynical about what I thought was a constant quest for betterment; endless commercials about weight loss, health club memberships, ab machines and the like. Ten years ago, I actually got sucked into the betterment vortex…inspired by Kristie Brinkley and Chuck Norris and actually bought a Total Gym. But I bought it for the wrong reasons, and my workouts fizzled.
At the height of my snootiness, I vividly recall snickering at a group of people speed walking around the deck on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. It struck me as odd that they would be wasting precious cruising time on exercise!
Ah, but the beauty of growing older and wiser is that we can laugh at the naiveté of our youth! Now I’m becoming one of those speed walkers. And I’m actually participating in a Hot Yoga class.
MY “5 MONTHS LATER”
Today, I understand my fitness as an issue of stewardship. If the body is the temple…then its time to take better care of the temple. With only one year left in my 40s…I’m feeling both young at heart, and also time-squeezed. There are so many good things I want to do with my life – so many good things I feel called to do.
In our coaching research, ‘fitness’ is always the lowest of the Seven Fs in satisfaction. And, surprisingly fitness is ALSO the lowest when we ask about their priorities. Those facts make for an easy joke when I’m speaking on the subject…but the undeniable resistance people feel about their fitness is troubling.
So the new me is doing my best to lead by example. That means taking better care of myself, and routinely asking other people about their fitness. The joy is in discovering fitness mentors all around me. My father in law is 84 years old and he walks and does calisthenics every day. And recently I discovered one of my golfing buddies was a work out junkie. I had no idea.
He recently turned 50, and his attitude is contagious. When I asked the What do you do for your fitness? question, he replied: “Fitness for me is one of the most important Fs – I love taking care of my body as my Temple!” He was positively beaming as he explained: “My wife and I recently turned our living room into the home office, and the old office into a really cool home gym. Today, I’m hooked on fitness videos…I just love the jumping around, stretching and stuff. Its fun, and it makes me feel young.”
One of my favorite coaching concepts is derived from an eastern faith quotation: what we concentrate on grows. That’s certainly true for me: I’m concentrating on finding positive, inspiring fitness mentors in my life to help me learn to find the fun in fitness. After 48 years of basically thumbing my nose at my fitness, I’ve found God is working through me in mysterious ways. And guys like Steve Blexrud are changing my life, for good!
No more resolutions…just better stewardship for the great gift of being alive.
PS: As a self-funded entrepreneur, fitness is taking on new meaning financially too. “Super-preferred” status with the insurance companies drops the premiums significantly life and disability policies. And, with healthcare co-pays and deductibles as high as the Empire State building, it sure pays to be in better shape.
