More Than A Moment

For years I yo-yoed up and down when it came to physical fitness.  

Freshman year of college, I got together with a few buddies and went to the gym at our school on a regular basis.  I got into biking.  My goal was to look fit when I went home for the holidays and I reached it.  After the holidays came and went, I was less consistent.

I got engaged in my senior year of college.  With the wedding just a few months away, I got motivated and started working out again.  On my wedding day, I didn’t look nearly as good as my bride, but I was in decent shape.  By the time our first anniversary rolled around I had already put on some significant pounds.

The following year, my wife and I decided to run a ten-mile race on Thanksgiving Day.  We trained up for weeks and when race day came we were able to finish without any problems.  We weren’t the fastest, but we were good shape.  When the New Year came just a few weeks later, I had already fallen out of the habit of running.

With each goal I set out to accomplish, I excelled to new heights of healthy living.  Once the goal was achieved it was a quick slide back into bad habits.  The rollercoaster of ups and downs was created by a mistake in my thinking.  For a long time, I thought goal setting was the only key to creating fitness.  However, goals usually only last a moment.  After they are completed, there is still a need to continue on toward breaking through the next barrier or maintaining the health that you have created.

This is why dieting/exercising toward an event almost never works in the long term.  Once the high school reunion, wedding day, or beach vacation is over the motivation is gone.  While these kinds of goals and deadlines are helpful and often necessary to get started, they are here today and gone tomorrow.

Healthy living is a lifestyle change.  Several months ago, I watched the Biggest Loser as they revisited some of the past contestants.  Some had maintained their weight-loss and looked great.  Others did not.  It was only the people who had committed to continual exercise, new goals, and healthier eating habits that looked great.

Maybe you have been on the rollercoaster of health and unhealthy living for a while.  It is time to get off.  Choose a goal, accomplish it, and then choose the next one.  Focus on maintaining the changes that you have made.  Commit to a healthier lifestyle for the long term.  Health has to be more than a moment.