In the future, I may elaborate on the topic of identity, but for today's blog post, I am going to concentrate on incorporating fitness into your identity. Many people incorporate less than stellar things into their identities, rationalizing it by saying something like "This is just who I am." I have met people who have an identity they have accepted as being a fat man, and actually had become proud of it. If you accept and embrace a problem you have, your motivation to change virtually ceases to exist. In this case, the obese person has no problem consuming vast amounts of junk food and is not interested in exercise because they don't have a strong desire to make positive change. The problem is that obese people are at increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and all sorts of other physical maladies. It even becomes more difficult to do such things as using the restroom, taking a shower, putting on socks/shoes, and getting into a vehicle - something that fit people often take for granted.
On the other end of the spectrum, some people incorporate being physically fit, athletic and healthy into their identities. I was one such person throughout high school; eating healthy and constantly exercising every single day. I pushed myself to the limit frequently because I felt deep down that it was my destiny to be physically fit and an accomplished athlete. It was a part of who I was; a part of my identity. I was fortunate enough to have parents who reinforced this identity; fitness and athletic achievement were prized in the household I grew up in. I was a serious soccer player, but dabbled in track, cross country, wrestling and basketball. When it came to sports and physical performance, I put an extreme amount of effort into making sure I was one of the top performers.
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| Ripped and lean at Beach Iredale, Fort Stevens State Park during the summer between junior and senior year of high school. I was wearing my delayed entry poolie dog tags after enlisting in July, 2001. I was 17 yrs. old in this picture. |
When I left my parents' house, my eating habits and exercising habits fluctuated. Being in the Marines, I generally was required to perform physical training, but the stress of four deployments and of being in a constantly stressful environment took its toll on me and my level of health and fitness took a tumble. It didn't help that I did not practice adequate self-care. Eventually, my wife and I decided it would be best if I left the Marine Corps and move our family back to Oregon. My bad health and stress followed me into civilian life and my weight shot up to almost 300 lbs. I nearly resigned myself to being heavy for the foreseeable future.
It wasn't until my friend Jason introduced my wife and me to Isagenix that I made a comeback, health and fitness-wise. I lost a lot of weight, fast, just by being on the 30-day system. I lost the big gut I had grown and the fitness part of my identity came back into the forefront. My energy and zeal for life returned to me and I began to feel good about my health again.
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| At Camp Rilea running cross country for Cascade High School in 2001. The flag is at half-mast due to the 9/11 bombings of the World Trade Center. I was 18 years old in this picture and was taken after I played 90 minutes of intense varsity soccer the day before. It was the last time I tried to do soccer and cross country at the same time. |
It doesn't matter what your background is, what you have been through or what bad characteristics you think are in your identity. The past is the past; grow from it, learn from it and move on to a better present and future. Make a decision today to start eating right and exercising; taking fitness and ingraining it into your identity. Do not give yourself the choice of giving up and going back to an unhealthy, out of shape state of being. Win the battle in your mind, because if you get past the lust for unhealthy food and the desire to abstain from challenging exercise, it will change your life for the positive: you won't get sick as often, you will generally feel better, you will be able to sustain more free time activities, you will be able to do more with your kids and just feel so much better.
Quit making excuses; they hold you back. The Marine Corps has a saying in response to excuses: improvise, adapt and overcome. Don't repeat the lie in your mind "I can't" because you will start believing it and it will become part of your identity. Instead tell yourself "I can and I will!"
Being physically fit helps you accomplish more, and will make you feel like you can do virtually anything. It will improve your quality of life and will allow you, more often, to 'Seize the Day' rather than saying "I'm tired, I'll do it tomorrow." I'll give you a little hint: it won't happen tomorrow, either, because you'll still be tired until you decide to do something in order to lose weight, get healthy and willfully (sometimes painfully) move that body!
When you make fitness a part of your identity, you will have less a chance of falling back into the rut of identifying yourself as someone who wasn't meant or doesn't want to be fit. Take your life back! Set fitness goals and after meeting them, set some more. A goal is like a basketball hoop; basketball would look pretty silly if all the players did was throw a ball around the court and never shot the ball. Live life the same way as you would play some of your favorite sports: with goals in mind. In fitness, if you don't have goals, you are more likely to fizzle out. To be physically fit, set smaller goals you can achieve easily in order to keep your motivation up in addition to larger goals.
Ask yourself every day how you are making fitness a part of your identity. Daily work towards your fitness goals. It's okay to treat yourself every now and then, but make low glycemic, nutritious meals the norm. It may feel like you are depriving yourself at first, but it will be worth it in the end.
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| Someone snapped a picture of me doing push-ups in late summer 2001, at about the time I turned 18 years old. |
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