Shifting Focus

I’ll be honest. I’m not going to weigh 176.5 lbs by July 15. I am such an idiot, a failure, a waste! Just kidding! Actually, I don’t buy that at all. 39 lbs. by age 39 is a catchy title, a noble goal, and yet still not going to be a reality. What is going to be a reality?

I love doing the workouts that I do now. Some are hard, make me shiver at the difficulty, but overall, I love the variety and the focus on improving skills, strength, and conditioning. While the scale can show a lot, it doesn’t show what has changed internally. My view of fitness, activity, and the rest of my life is different. My life is riddled with inconsistency, starting, stopping, giving up, but that is not true of this challenge. There have been numerous distractions (good in the form of a new son, and bad in the form of the lack of sleep), potential pitfalls (getting sick for a week), and a continuing pursuit of getting an “out of whack body back on track.”

My reality is this:

• I don’t want to stop working out after July 15.
• I want to be active for the rest of my life.
• Wyatt won’t walk for several months and won’t run for even longer, so I still have time to train to keep up with him.
• This challenge is not a phase, it is a springboard.
• Being able to jump again without blowing out an ankle, knee, or calf is one of the most exciting things for me. Although I’m only 5’9” I had a brown mark in the middle of my forearm from hitting it against a 10 foot rim as recently as age 28. I can’t get there yet, but I wouldn’t (repeat…wouldn’t) even try jumping for a few years because everything felt like it was going to blow out if I tried. That’s progress!
• Persistence occurs over time, not apart from time, and not without battles (what good is a movie without the ups and downs? It is called boring, and fodder for helping me sleep).
• Movement is good. Being able to step up and down, jump, pull myself off the ground, and perform many other movements is priceless.

My 94 year old grandmother and 90 year grandma were both active for most of their lives and now they are both using walkers due to surgeries. They both were moving pretty freely until the last year or two, so they have lived full active lives. Yesterday, I saw a lady barely over half their age struggle to pull herself into her van by the steering wheel. I didn’t know if she would make it (thankfully she did). I don’t say that judgmentally, but it was a reminder that we were created to move, to live, to breathe, and made me realize that I want to live a long and active life.

Not only do I want an active life, but I desire one that includes some perspective; a way of seeing things that bring clarity to everyday life. I’ve linked to the guys at www.lifespotlight.com before and I will again. Some of the points they made in a post last week have significantly impacted my thinking this week. A couple that immediately stuck with me were:

• Don’t have a vision of you 30lbs lighter in 30 days, have a vision of you healthy and lean in 1, 10, 25 years…that will keep you on track for life (as I can’t tell you how many people are always trying repeatedly to lose the same 15+ lbs they seem to lose/regain year after year).
  
• (That's a novel thought…it isn’t about 39lbs. by 39!...it’s about chasing Wyatt, and whatever children may come behind him, enjoying being free to live life with my wife unhindered by inactivity…God willing of course!)
• Throw out the scale, it’s causing more problems than it solves. You don’t know what the magic number should be anyways, so stop obsessing over it. A mirror and your clothes will tell you what is going on with your body composition.
  
• (Is this a cop out for me, or a motivation to remember 176.5 lbs. may not be the “magic number?”)

I might have been embarrassed a few years ago if I started on a challenge and I didn’t reach the numbers. I also may have said “screw it” and checked out mentally, emotionally, and even physically. That isn’t the case today. That is why I have shifted focus and probably will continue to shift focus. Yeah, I think I would like to get to 185-190 lbs., but guess what? The last time I weighed that (5 years ago) I couldn’t do 20 kipping pull-ups AFTER a full workout, nor could I do a full range bodyweight squat, nor could I avoid pulling a hamstring, a calf, or irritating a rotator cuff when I tried to perform an explosive movement (get your mind out of the gutter…this isn’t like Jeff Daniels in “Dumb and Dumber” after Jim Carrey slipped him the “Turbo lax” in his tea...sorry, I haven't outgrown potty humor).

Age 38, almost 39, and almost where I want to be, and enjoying what I already possess; that, for me is shifting focus.