Weight (wait) for living...

Okay, it is so much better to say (or hear) weight for living than to write it! But I will have to live with what I got.

This week I have heard a few comments about weight, which isn't too unusual.  They went as followed:  "I have lost 40 pounds so far this year..."  and the response: " Well can you stop? I have found all of your lost weight!" 😂  Another comment: " I have been doing great at going to the gym, but the scale hasn't changed." Last comment was: "I have gained 30lbs since last year, that is more than I have ever gained before."  All comments are true, and all too common.  Conversations about weight are almost part our daily lifes. Weight is obviously something we think about, and everyone else out there does too.

The culture of how we view weight and it's relationship to our live, self worth and ability to live to full and happy life is a bit scary.  I see so many put there weight as a reason to wait on living the life they want.  There are things in our life that we can control, and should actively work on those to improve our quality of living.  There are also things we cannot control, we should actively work around them and still make the best of our life.  Weight is somewhere in the middle of our control.  There are things we can do to stay at a healthy weight, and there things we cannot control about our weight.  The key is we can still make our live worth living now--not later; not when we lose the 30lbs (or for those struggling the other way, gain 20lbs), or scale starting showing different numbers.  We can be full of purpose and happy regardless of our weight, it is not something we should wait for.

I am human and my weight changes daily, weekly, and monthly.  I know that because I have kept track of my weight, and still on occasion I will weigh myself at the gym.  A annoying trend I have is when I take more than a week off of weight training, I lose weight (yay! right??).  And the opposite is true, if I start weight training after a short (or long) break, I gain weight (booo!).  So to avoid this roller coaster, I could just stop weight training all together and the problem would be solved.  I could still do other exercises.  Right?  Of course that is wrong! Allowing the weight of my body to dictate whether I weight train, or not; exercise, or not exercise, is a horrible loss of self control, self worth, and reasoning.  I am stronger when I work my muscles.  I have more energy when I work my muscles.  I can enjoy more activities when my muscles are stronger.  I am happier when I am working my muscle.  So I am actually happier, healthier, (hungrier) and stronger when I weigh more. 

I hear often the motivation of exercising is to lose weight.  While hopefully if you need to lose weight, that is eventually a side effect, it should not be your goal.  Weight loss is one of those things in the middle of your control.  We only have particle control over our weight.  A healthy person is not a light person; bone density, muscle mass, and hydration are all factor of our bodies weight, they hopefully are a big part of why we are heavy (and healthy)!  When you feel something "light" it is often fragile, when you feel something strong, it is often relatively heavy.  When you start exercising, you will most likely gain weight or maintain your weight for a few months.  That is a good sign, that means you are getting stronger and building stronger muscles!  Over time those muscle will require more energy and start using those extra fat cells and you will start to see a change; if not to your weight, than to your size (weight is also strongly influenced by diet, so exercise alone won't necessary decrease your weight...but that's for another day).  Exercise will 100% increase your health, energy, and happiness... REGARDLESS of your weight!  So why let your weight dictate your choice to exercise?  Don't. Take control and choose to exercise for you, you are so much more than the weight of your body. 

Take home message: don't wait till you are the weight that you, or someone else, designated as normal or healthy to start living.  Live is too short and there are so many things to do, so start today.  There is always a begin.  We can't make it to the end, or even the middle, if we don't start at the beginning. 

First Post...

I decided to start this blog to express and share my journey of live and it's relationship to exercise.  I am not a health nut, gym junky, or anything like that,  I am a someone who does exercise though.  I exercise to live...quite literally and also figuratively.  I love life! I love all it has to offer, the world is beautiful and I want to enjoy it all!  I also have a heart defect and when I am not exercising I find myself pass out on the ground sometimes multiple times a day.  So I exercise for living. 

My journey of exercising didn't start until I was in college, about 19 years old.  My heart started giving up when I was about 14 years old.  At age 19 I had a several heart tests done to figure out what was wrong and as a result I was given a few heart medications and they talked about a pace maker.   I also had a roommate that was a runner.  Seeing her discipline and strength was awesome.  She had the energy and fitness  to do about anything.  So I started running... sort-of, but that was my beginning.  I was feeling pretty good.

I got married a few years later.  The thought of being on medicine that had no test or trials done during pregnancy scared me into stopping my medicine.  I also had NO desire for a pace maker, so I didn't return to a cardiologist and just winged it (yes I was scared).  By this time I was quite active, spending lots of time outdoors and staying fit enough to enjoy life.  This is also the time I started correlating my fitness level with my heart health (obvious, but real live changing).  I wasn't passing out as often. My heart rate, though still fast, was more regulated.  I felt better and had fewer head aches. My blood pressure was a bit higher (I know, most have the opposite problem, but low blood was/is mine problem; and it is no fun either!). 

Off and On Off and On... I was reminded of this exercise = healthy heart correlation offen as over the years, while rising my kids, I would take time to exercise and stop exercising.  I am not perfect and it is so tricky to fit in exercise with little kids!  But the extreme, and offen scary, difference I felt in my heart when I was not exercising verses exercising, was real and enough to get me going again.

So I have a relationship with exercise that is a little unique, and rather long term.  I have learned so much through my journey, and am still learning so much.  I love my life, and I am living because of exercise.  You'd think I would be a little better at exercising than I am, but again I am not perfect.  This blog to help remind me of the benefits of exercising, encourage me to keep going, and hopefully encourage more to love life and exercise!