Writing for the Right Reasons

A couple of years ago I started up this blog with the intention of tracking my progress towards my weight loss goals, sharing my experiences, and hopefully connecting with others in the same position. And for a while I succeeded…I lost weight, I blogged regularly and I went merrily on my way to meeting my fitness goals.

But…yes, there’s always a but in a statement like that, I stopped. I stopped blogging, stopped focusing on weight loss and stopped making the goals that I was supposed to strive for. Not sure what caused it, and really, can’t pretend that that actually matters. The fact was that I stopped. I gained back much of what I lost, and in doing so lost something intangible that I had gained; A sense of accomplishment.

I kept doing my morning workouts, but without a focus I know they weren’t what they should be. I made excuses for myself, to myself, since truthfully I’m the only one really listening, and slowly watched my successes fade.

Fast forward to today>>>>>

In January my wife (and if you don’t like that term replace with whatever description makes you happy) and I joined a fitness challenge at a local karate gym. It was a short commitment really, 90 days. Show up, work out, go home. Not much to ask for from myself and with a chance to win a prize kind of goal oriented too.

Imagine my shock. I was so far behind where I should be at this point it almost felt like I was starting fresh. I thought that that was going to be the end, no one can look back on what they’ve done, see where they were, how far they’ve fallen and still move forward. And yet, something amazing happened. I loved it! I love my karate classes, the ache the next day, the fact that in some ways I haven’t had a day my muscles didn’t ache in almost 3 months.

I realized that this is something I want. Not to get fit, not to lose weight, not even to get a black belt (and destroy an evil kung fu syndicate like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon…though that would be so cool). Just to go to my class, learn something new, stretch my muscles and my abilities and find that sense of accomplishment again.

Don’t misunderstand me; I want to wear something other than lily white around my waist in karate class. And I believe wholeheartedly that getting to a black belt will be one of the proudest (but modestly of course) moments of my life. It’s just that I don’t believe that would be enough if I didn’t genuinely love the training itself. Because that’s what it takes to be the slowest, fattest, least fit, least flexible person there and still smile (through the sweat and suffering) and look forward to it each class.

This brings me to the point. The blog idea was great, the public accountability did help, but in the end maybe that just wasn’t enough. So for now I’m just writing because I want to, just like going to my karate classes. And if there happens to be some side benefits…well that’s good too.