I believe Simon Sinek, author, motivational speaker and organizational consultant is the one who began the buzz phrase “what is your why?” and how defining your why can lead you to success & satisfaction.
You can find a plethora of talks on YouTube by Sinek, but with a focus more on careers and helping organizations define their whys. I highly recommend checking him out.
Weight Watchers has jumped on the band wagon with the “what is your why?” reasoning and in this blog I will be sharing why I want to lose a few extra pounds & be fit.
There is the obvious “because”. Because I am not happy with how I look, and how my clothes fit me. I want to feel comfortable in my own skin. If I am invited to the beach I don’t want to feel like I need to park my stuff as close to the water so I can quickly submerge my body under the ocean waves before anyone notices me running across the sand to hit the cool wet stuff. I want to feel confident in my own skin and presently I don’t. I have a lot of women tell me that I don’t need to lose weight and I am fine, but it is me who has to be comfortable with my body and presently I am not.
Because I saw how my aunt and uncle held off on traveling because of a career and then when my uncle was ready to travel my aunt remained obese but gained some health issues with her older age such as congestive heart failure, diabetes and strained mobility. My aunt never got to travel as they had originally planned and she passed away in her 70s. If she had taken better care of herself in her earlier years, she may still be around today & she most likely would have been able to visit the many countries she had always planned to visit after raising a family and my uncle retiring.
As I don’t have any children, I have done a lot of traveling in my past, but I want to be able to continue to explore this glorious world right up to my 80s if I am so blessed to live this long. I want to be strong and I want to be light in weight as extra weight is hard on your body and it also leads to a large amount of health issues down the road.
A couple of pics from my travels below:
Pic of cathedral in Köln, Germany
Pic of side street in Rotterdam, Germany
My biggest why is being healthy and mobile. If you are overweight when you are older you won’t be able to get away with the things you did in your 40s & 50s and it can make the last two decades of life challenging and miserable.
I have no idea what the future holds. I honestly don’t know if I will be able to retire by the time I am 60 or 65 with the way Canadian citizens are living longer and we struggle to maintain a healthcare system which is a right to all Canadians and not a privilege. I want to be the healthiest version of myself so that I am up to snuff if I have to continue working until I am 70 years old. I hope this isn’t the case, but I want to live as independently as I can without relying on the government.
My short term why is because I need to be able to fit in my wedding dress!
Pic below is an ill-fitting wedding dress which won’t do up & not a pic of me.
Because I want to hike a mountain some day like Mount Kilimanjaro.
Because I have a life partner I want to remain healthy and strong for, and I don’t want him to have to worry about me when we get older and my health. I want us to live independently for as long as we can and even if that means me having to look after him. I need to be healthy and strong, not bulked down by extra weight.
My fiancé Brian is below:
I also have family who live in South Korea and I need to be able to visit them and the flight from Toronto to South Korea is twelve hours. Traveling long distances takes a toll on your body & my parents don’t feel like they can make the trip.
Pic of my brother Stephen, me & my niece & nephew, Hannah and Noah
Yes, vanity does play a small role into my why, but more than anything my why is to be healthy so I can live a long healthy life of quality with the people who matter most to me and I want to travel the world till the day I die if I can…
I would love to know what your why is if you are trying to shed some weight or get in shape. What is your why?
Peace & Love – Rachel
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