I haven't tracked exercise for over 20 years. I began again today with P90X tracking. It brought back old feelings of wanting to be healthy. I really remember the mindset I had as a teen. I always wanted to be fit, I was very conscious about my intake and went out of my way to eat healthy foods.
As a young adult, things got out of hand for some reason. I hate the adage "life gets in the way", it doesn't address the issue. I believe that I was complacenet and that I was in a good place financially, so the normal thing to do would be to go out to eat. I recall eating out with my wife to very hearty type places; steakhouses, buffets, expensive gourmet places in NYC and the list goes on. I NEVER did that as a teen or young adult because I simply didn't have the money.
As the pounds began to add to my weight, I never real took a hard look at where I was going. 10, 15, even 20 pounds were (in my mind) something to deal with another time. Well the 'another time' never happened and here I am morbidly obese at over 300 lbs, high BP, atrial fibrilation, anxiety, weak knees and irritability (due to the Afib).
While in vacation in Boston on June, I didn't want to feel like this anymore. I couldn't keep up with my family while walking in the city and frankly, I was unhappy and depressed that I let myself go.
A friend gave me his old P90X DVDs a few weeks ago and I have slowly been doing them (albeit modified) as well as going to my local LA Fitness to embark on getting the old me back.
During today's workout, I used more weight than I usually do, and although it was difficult, I forced myself to complete the entire 1 hour workout. I didn't sweat a lot, but I did it AND my muscles do hurt. A good hurt; the one that indicates that you did a hard workout and that they are reparing themselves.
I really want this and hope I can dig deeper each week to continue to find the underlying 'happy' motivation layers of yesteryear; I know they're there, I just have to be patient and persist. What I have done to increase this is to purchase old books that propelled me as a young man. Spiritual books and the like. I have begun immersing myself into this lilke never before in order to give me a foundation of wisdom and old feelings that will hopefully allow me to be anything i want; whether it's a fit man or a triathlete, I know that I can do this.