Monday, January 10, 2011

Educate and Motivate

I think the vast majority of people out there need a good swift kick in the ass. Why you say? Because 60% of our population is obese. 60%!!! That's fucking insane! It's also extremely pathetic! Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is calculated from a person's weight and height and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems. The following diagrams show our country's health decline from 1990 to 2009.


Our country's health is on slippery slope and I'm sorry but I don't think obesity is a sickness. I'm not talking about individuals that are overweight due to an injury or debilitating illness. I'm talking about people that constantly consume unhealthy crap and sit on their ass all day wondering why they're overweight. Or better yet they acknowledge the fact that they're extremely overweight and don't take the time to educate themselves on how to obtain a healthier more fulfilling lifestyle and I have to watch their fat ass drive around the local grocery store on a motorized cart purchasing liters and liters of soft drinks and processed food. What angers me even more is when they have their usually overweight child walking next to them. Look at what you are doing to your kid! Enough ranting.

You have to educate yourself. You have to constantly search for information from every source available. We live in an age of technology, use that technology to your advantage. Google "Healthy Recipes" for Christ sake. Go to the library or your local half priced book store and read some literature on the subject. Contact a nutritionist or personal trainer and come up with a battle plan to kick the shit out of your problem. Ask yourself these questions. Do I want type II diabetes? Does cardiovascular disease sound like a good time? Can this horrible diet contribute to my chances of contracting certain types of cancer? These are the things you have to look forward to if you don't clean up your act. I know everyone's situation and schedule is different but if you don't know how to start addressing the problem you'll never find a solution. Experiment if you have to, find what works for you, be proactive, adapt and overcome.

Look I'm not fat. I've never been overweight a day in my life. In fact my problem has mostly been the exact opposite. When I graduated high school I weighed 120lbs soaking wet and got pushed around alot. Those negative experiences of people taking advantage of me and exploiting my physical weakness motivated me to change my physical appearance which in turn altered my mental outlook on things. I started by educating myself on how to work out in an effective manner. My regiment of physical training has changed drastically in the past decade and I made a ton of mistakes in my early years but through trial and error I got bigger and stronger. I read every weight lifting, body building, and nutrition magazine I could get my hands on. I asked numerous body builders and personal trainers what they ate, what supplements they were taking, and how they were lifting. This constant search and desire to learn more about my body and what drives it to be powerful and healthy still motivates me today.

When all else fails have an icon or some other source of inspiration. Yes it's great to just want to be healthy but some of us need extra motivation. Some of us want to get the girl or climb the tallest peak in the world. Sitting on the couch drinking a beer and watching tv feels pretty damn good and because it feels so good you might actually think about opting out of going to the gym that day or playing a game of basketball with your friends. In this case you need that extra kick in the ass. One thing that has worked extremely well for me is visualizing athletes I look up to or watching videos of the top competitors in my sport. My 2 favorite sports are rock climbing and brazilian jiu jitsu. There have been numerous days that I get home from working ten hours behind a desk and I don't feel like doing anything let alone scaling a huge wall hanging by my finger tips and toes. Any time I question whether or not to work out or go to class I find a video on the internet or pop in a dvd that I know will motivate me. Seeing Chris Sharma, one of the best rock climbers in the world, charge up and dominate what looks like and unclimbable wall of rock gets me psyched to climb. I then turn that motivation into kinetic motion and get my ass to the rock gym.


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