Love Feeling Sore

The title reveals it all.

I love feeling sore.

It has become a game for me recently. How hard can I push my body today where I can feel it all day tomorrow? It makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere when my body aches and burns no matter what I'm doing the next day. Feeling sore is a high, and working out has become my drug of choice. Have you ever had what I like to refer to as "runner's high"? You don't get it from running up the block, it takes a little bit of distance. I normally start to feel it about half a mile in. It's this intense rush that hits me all of a sudden and makes me feel invincible. Once that high hits I can run faster, longer and harder. During this "high" I push myself harder than I do any other time. I have to. If I don't push when I'm at the peak of my run, I will never break any of my own records, I won't get any better. I push to make myself better than I was yesterday.

I used to be obsessed with being better than everyone else. I'm pretty competitive. I want to be the best. Honestly, the older I get though, the more I realize that I don't need to be better than everyone else. I just need to be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday. I've been given one life on this earth. One and one only so why should I waste it chasing unrealistic goals? There will always be someone who is better than me at something. But it's up to me to make myself better with every day.

This seems silly but I used to think that if I ate healthy and worked out one day then the next day I would jump on the scale and be 5 pounds lighter. Okay, that may be exaggerating a little bit, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Everyone is looking for the "quick fix" or the "easy solution" when it comes to losing weight and being healthy. People give up because they look at how far they still have to go instead of how far they have already come. It doesn't matter if you can see the changes on the outside. Every single day that you make decisions to be healthier or more active, you are changing your body from the inside. Results take time but they do come. Don't get discouraged when the scale fluctuates, when you don't lose any inches one week, when you somehow gain weight one week. KEEP WORKING HARD.

I promise you, no one got a six pack sitting on their butt looking at other people who have six packs and wishing it was theirs. The ones who have the fit, healthy bodies are the ones who put in the time, dedication and hard work. They chose the gym over the bar. They chose the veggies over the potato chips and they are in what you might consider your "dream body." You can get there too. And so can I.

I'm working hard everyday to get there. Are you?

If you aren't, what's stopping you? What is holding you back? Let's get there together.