Happy Monday! Still celebrating the fall racing season, here, and it's time to get some perspective on motivation from Miss Molly Ritterbeck. Below, she shares her story of becoming active, running her first 5k, and finding profound motivation for being healthy and strong.
Thanks, Molly! There is SO much more to physical activity than weight loss. I'm glad you found an activity that you enjoy, that gives you energy, and that makes you feel empowered.
You can find Molly on her blog and on Twitter.
Tell us: What's YOUR motivation for being fit? for eating well? for running?
-----
So today I am your guest blogger! My name is Molly
Ritterbeck and I blog over at Miss Molly and I
am so blessed to be writing as a guest today!
What I am going to talk about today is motivation. What
motivates you? Let me tell you about what motivates me!
I am a working mother who has two beautiful daughters and a
husband that serves in the military - that is enough stress in itself isn’t it?
Well let me tell you with the bills that come with kids and life in general and
job changes to boot I was getting stressed. My tension headaches, anxiety, and
sore shoulders (my stress goes straight to my shoulders) I just didn’t know
what to do. I was also starting to really lose myself in taking care of
everything and everyone else that I was kind of fighting off some
depression. I didn’t want to turn
to medicine and I knew if I went to a doctor that is what I would get.
My husband told me I needed to get active and change my diet
- but I was never going to something because I was told - I needed to do it for
myself. I had friends who went back and forth with new diet fads (meal plans,
pills, prescription pills, etc) and I saw how they aged, fought self confidence
issues, and more. I didn’t want to be like that. Being a gymnast for over 8
years I thought I was still in shape despite no doing anything for a long time….so
I decided one day to run a 5K with NO training. Not one of my brightest
moments. I paid for that for a couple days after.
As I was sitting in pain one of the days after I was mad. I
was mad that I couldn’t do it. I was mad that Nick finished in 21 minutes and
came back and ran half of it with me again. I didn’t need his help to finish. I
didn’t want his help to finish ever again. I was going to do this. I started running little by little and
building distance. I found friends to do it with me. I joined a running club.
People were motivating me who didn’t even know me. I was not the best but they
didn’t care at all. They thought it was awesome to do what I could and so did
I.
I also started to notice the pain in my shoulders was gone,
the anxiety was gone, and the headaches were gone. I had energy and could get
more accomplished in the day. I was happier and was eating better. I was
becoming what I had wanted and it was all because I didn’t want to be beaten.
My motivation was to not be beaten.
I only had one moment of doubt and that was when my friends
started to notice that I was losing weight and asked about it. Since I do not
weigh myself very often at all (the gymnast in me swore I would never worry
about a scale again), I had no clue - and I honestly said I didn’t think I had
lost much so I couldn’t tell them. One of my friends stopped and looked at me
and said “Well what’s the point if you aren’t losing weight?” I stopped in my
tracks. Wow - what was the point I thought. The best part is - it only lasted a
moment and I was able to say “The point is I feel better, and I now know I can
do anything I put my mind to.”
I was mad at my friend for asking such a shallow question,
but at the same time I was glad that I could answer her with the right answer
and not a shallow one.
My motivation is myself and my family. It will never be to
get to a number on the scale, but maybe to fit in my jeans better. It will
never be to in the “in crowd” and be skinny because lets be real - strong is
the new skinny. I will be strong for myself and my family.
-----
Thanks, Molly! There is SO much more to physical activity than weight loss. I'm glad you found an activity that you enjoy, that gives you energy, and that makes you feel empowered.
You can find Molly on her blog and on Twitter.
Tell us: What's YOUR motivation for being fit? for eating well? for running?
YES YES
ReplyDeletewe have the same motivation...family not skinny jeans here as well :-)
Love Molly's story! I used to be one of the what's the point if you're not losing weight crowd. Now I barely pay attention to the scale. In fact I think shifting our mindset is so, so important!
ReplyDeleteBeing healthy motivates me :)
ReplyDeleteWhile I would like to lose my belly fat to look better, my primary motivation is to feel better and I already do. I can now tie my shoes without giving out of breath and my acid reflux has ceased to exist.
ReplyDelete