Dear Fit Over 40 Challenger:
My name is David McGarry and back in January of 2014 I had hit a milestone birthday. Yes, if you are reading this on the blog then you know I turned the BIG 40! For me turning 40 was more difficult than turning 30. I guess because I had always heard that when you turn 30 people start taking you seriously. So at 30 I felt like, OK, now I am going to be looked at from others as a mature adult and business person. However what is there to look forward to at 40?
Well, believe or not at that moment I decided that at the age of 40 I was going to be make health and fitness my #1 priority. Why? well, first of all my father passed away at the age of 67 from a massive heart attack. He struggled with his health for several decades and unfortunately he never got to meet his two granddaughters. I know that I have no control over how long I am going to live but I can tell you that I am not going to let my lack of health awareness and exercise habits to be the reason I don’t get to meet my daughter’s kids.
Secondly, my mother is in her early 70’s and is probably in better shape then most 40 year olds. She is a true inspiration to me to live a healthy life and still be able to do things that people 20 or even 30 years younger are doing. I feel if I can continue to focus on my fitness and health I too can be like my mother.
Finally, I want to be an example for my kids. Fitness has always been a huge part of my life and influence on who am I today as a person. I want to pass along those traits to my kids and lead as an example.
So, let me ask you what is your big reason why? Why do you want to stay fit at the age of 40 and above?
This is one of the first questions I always ask my clients. You see it is not good enough to just have a goal of losing weight or looking good. In order for you to get through the days you don’t want to work out or through periods where you fall off the wagon with your eating habits you need to have a strong why!
What else is stopping you from being in the best shape of your life?
For me I just became too comfortable with average. I was just doing just enough to maintain my current fitness status and wasn’t really doing anything that pushed my limits. I decided that I wanted to change that and made it a goal of mine to start really pushing my limits and challenging myself in different ways. I am sure there is something preventing you. Maybe you are frustrated that you have tried different diets and workouts and nothing has really worked. I can tell you from working with hundreds of clients of the years sometimes what you do works and sometimes it does not. If you are not losing weight change the goal to something else like being able to run without walking for 2 miles or focus in on lowering your blood pressure or cholesterol. I have heard all the excuses in the book and trust me some can be pretty valid but until you put your health as a top priority it is easy to not take action
So, before you do anything else today take a piece of paper and write down what your BIG WHY is. Yes, you must write it down because it being in your head will not work. I don’t have time to explain that here on this post but trust me you must write it down and then share it with someone close to you. By sharing it you make it public and you can also get someone in your corner to help when things get tough. Finally, if you do not put your health as a top priority then it will always take a back seat and you will struggle to get into the best shape of your life.
If you would like to join our community come on over to the FB page at FITOver40 and join the tribe!
In health,
Coach Dave
