Funny how certain small moments remind you of big “why’s” in your life.
So I’m pecking away at the computer the other night, the skies are sobbing with rain…like buckets of water slopping down… and my 10 year old wakes, comes downstairs, spooked. “Daddy, I’m scared. If I sleep on the sofa can you carry me up when you go to bed?”
Nothing too unusual for a night at our place. But turned into the scene for what felt like my best work of the day, and a reminder of what’s powered my eating and moving journey now for almost 5 years.
Work finished I shutter the laptop, turn off the lights, and execute a sort of deadlift, good morning, power clean combo to scoop up my snoozing daughter. Then to the stairs for a weighted step up routine to the 2nd floor.
More form-focused than on my best day in the gym, I’m a freaking study in controlled movement, the mood quality of the family’s next day hanging in the balance.
Rested child = happier child = happy parent. Sleep-deprived kid = all bets off = parent sanity at risk. I reach the room, execute a reverse of my deadlift complex, and kid is abed.
Nary a flutter of an eyelid for her ladyship. And for her conveyor, a ripple of satisfaction from this latest little payback for the weekly gym labors, the cleaner eating.
Physical activity with my own pop wasn’t in the cards growing up. So being able to jump in with my three girls on whatever activities strike their fancy, until I’m unreasonably old and gray is my Why. It’s the motivational fuel that hit me around 40, has powered my march to better fitness than at 20, and that set me off on this crazy ride of helping build Power Supply.
Sure, losing weight, clothes fitting differently, being more confident in shirts-off season, scampering up a rope at the gym, all that stuff is great. But the biggest return is how I feel gathering up those slumbering kiddos, rocking the playground together, hiking with their mom, sharing the jitters and thrills of that ropes course with them rather than watching from below.
Here’s to your Why, to what you eat better and move more for. Keep in touch with it, take note of the small wins chasing it gets you along the way. Doing so'll help you stay at it and keep racking up the life bennies along the way.
And here's to all the folks out there who help us each get started anew and keep rolling.
Or share your photos on social, tag #mypowermoment, and the inspiration will spread that way too.