Sunday, April 3, 2011

What motivates you?

This weekend I went back 2 years in my journal (aka my other blog) to try and find what made me decide to run my first marathon. I came upon a post made on August 31st, 2009...

At the dinner table today out of no where Brianna says:
-"Hey, mom. I'm trying really, really, really, really hard to be just like you."
-"Why do you want to be like me, Brianna?"
-"Cause I love you so much!"

If that doesn't make you want to be the best mom you can be, I don't know what does. I makes me realize how much she's watching my every move and learning from everything I do. I need to try a lot harder.
(Brianna was 5 at the time.)

After that post things changed. My mind changed. What kind of mom was I? Was I being the best I could be? Was I acting in a way that I would want my daughters to act? The answer was no. 

I wanted to exercise, I wanted to lose weight, and I wanted to be a better person. The thing about it though...I wasn't doing it. As much as I wanted it, the work was too hard. It wasn't impossible and it wasn't even really THAT hard, I guess it was taking more effort than I was willing to give at the time. The moment my daughter said that to me something clicked. Do I want my daughters to be like this? Eating cause she's bored without any self control, sitting more than she's moving, being unhappy? No. I don't want that. I want to be the best example. I want them to know what happy is. I want them to SEE what happy is. I want them to see that I love myself. I love myself enough to take care of myself. 
 
Sure, it's going to take effort, but you know what. I'm no quitter and I'm NOT going to quit on myself. I've done this before and I can do it again.
 
Around that time I also started this 21 day challenge. They say it takes 21 days to start a new habit and my habit was to exercise everyday and run a marathon a year later.  The daily quotes REALLY helped me stay motivated.

So, today I am making a change! I am going back to where I was on August 31st, 2009. I'm going to bed before 11:00 and getting up before 6:00 to run. If that doesn't happen due to baby girl waking up in the middle of the night then I'll make sure to get it done before bed. I'm sticking to my plan. I'm also going to post the quotes from the 21 day challenge on here everyday to keep myself motivated. 

What motivates you??

1 comment:

Amanda said...

We realized recently that even our oldest, who is 5, has no rememberance of us as morbidly obese people. All he knows is us now as the healthy driven people we are. He knows that there are needs your body has for certain foods and that exercise every day is a need too.

Kids are such wonderful motivators. Great job on being a movtivated mom. :)