I posted a video a few days ago about figuring out your why. Figuring out why you’re overweight. Figuring out why did it happen in the first place? (Hint, hint…it’s not because you like food.) So I wanted to follow that up with a question, and that is, “Why are you doing this?”
“Why are you doing this lifestyle?”
“Why is it worth it to you?”
…because a lot of times at first, we’re motivated strictly by aesthetic. We’re motivated because we want to look better in our clothes, we want to look better out of our clothes. And certainly, I think for our 20s and 30s, that is probably the strongest motivation.
But let me tell you what happens in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. Because this happened to me one day at work, and I’d been a critical care nurse for five or six years before this day hit me. I was at work one day in the ICU, and for some reason it dawned on me to go through the patients and why they were there. And we like to do that – we keep an eye on who’s there for what and what’s going on with them.
And it literally hit me like a brick between my eyes…that every single person in the ICU was in their 50s or 60s, and they were all there for something related to being obese.
Every one of them – literally dying, because they were FAT.And guys, everybody thinks that people in the ICU are old - you know their 80s, 90s, they’re old people. They are not. They are not old people. It is very rare that we get an old person in the ICU, and I promise you they are never, never, NEVER overweight. Never. I don’t see overweight 80 year-olds. I don’t see overweight 75 year-olds. And if you’re living to your 90s and beyond, mmm hmmm, healthy weight. All thin, all of them.
So why am I telling you guys this?
Because what we really all want is to live an amazing life, and to feel our best a long as humanly possible. That’s what we want. And I remember looking at those patients, and it was like all of a sudden I just went, I ain’t going down like that.
I AM NOT GOING DOWN LIKE THAT.If it is within my power, I am not going down like that. Now, I know…cancer, and there are certain things that you can’t necessarily control, and there’s a genetic component certainly.
But let me tell you: the culmination of SMALL choices over a lonnnnnng period of time is what really defines your life. And it doesn’t even just define how you live; it’s going to define how you die. It really is. And I’ve seen it over, and over, and over again.
So, it’s a pretty heavy thought, but I want you to really think:
How do I want to live? And how do I want to die?Because I don’t think that you want to go down like those people. I don’t think that you want respiratory failure, kidney failure, diabetes, and dialysis. You don’t want that. So think about today and how you feel right now, and think about the next 10, 20, 30 years of your life…how are you going to feel then?
Because this lifestyle is about more than having a cute butt. Or fitting into a smaller pair of jeans.
Happy No Bull Monday.
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