Day 19: Golfing Disney World

I have talked a lot about motivation lately and now I am no longer motivated to talk about it.  Don’t worry I will finish what I started about motivation but, come on, I have 346 more blogs to write and it’s not easy coming up with a topic every day.  Like today I was prepared to continue on motivation now I am side tracked.  Maybe I’m not motivated enough to keep talking about motivation or maybe I am more motivated to discuss something else.  You decide.

The subject of golf came up today and it had me thinking.  Back in the day when Fat Matt decided to take up the sport the main concern he had was hoping the golf cart didn’t run out of juice and he had to walk back to club house while the ice melted on his beer. 

I have been very out of shape in my life.  Pathetically so.  The first time I had to carry my clubs and walk a course I convinced I was going to die (oddly enough that is a theme that runs through your life when your fat and get winded walking up a few stairs, I know, I have been there.)

It was purely an economical decision to walk the course. After playing a total of about three months and watching the movie Happy Gilmore I was convinced I was the next Tiger Woods, and when the particular course I was playing asked me to pony up an additional $8 for a cart Cheap Matt jumped in front of Fat Matt and won that particular argument.

If you have never walked a solid 18 holes of golf before in the middle of July in South Georgia let me help you visualize.  Imagine being stuck in Disney Land in Florida all the air conditioners are broken and you have to walk from ride to ride except you don’t get to ride.  You have to stand there in the sun for a few minutes and then carry a 50 pound bag of cement to the next ride.  Get the picture. 

18 holes of golf should take you about 3 hours to play not 5 and half.  The best part of being fat is there is more of you to get sun burned and eaten by bugs.  The only reason I didn’t quit was because I was motivated by Cheap Matt (bet you saw that coming) after paying $28 to play I insisted on getting my money’s worth.    

I am proud to say that since then I have walked many courses with no problem and still had energy afterwards but if you had of told me that on the 10^th or 11^th hole the first time I did it I would have called you a liar.  Bottom line is this, it’s not fun being fat so why did I do it to myself?  Wish I had an answer.

Today, after only three weeks, well 19 days, I was able to jog for 46 minutes. The reason I did 46 instead of an even 45 was because I had few markers in mind and it took me longer than I thought to jog to them.  I don’t think that’s too bad for a 35 year old fat man. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 46 min jog (a little over 3 miles)

Kelly: 55 min beach walk in the loose sand

Day 18: More Motivational Motivation

Through all my reading and researching I believe there are two basic types of motivation: External and Internal.  They both have their uses and their draw backs, but what exactly are they and how do they work. You probably can guess most of what I am going to say so to help you visualize I am going to explain through a story.

What is External Motivation? (or how Really Fat Matt got fit the first time before becoming Plain Fat Matt)

This is a story about a boy and his shorts, not under ware, but a tale of cargo shorts.  You see, Fat Matt is also Cheap Matt and so we go back close to 15 years ago to a store, a cheap fat boy, and sale on shorts.

Fat Matt was in college, working, and had little time for proper nutrition or exercise, but needing new shorts for summer made his way to a store that was running an advertised sale.  After trying on several different pairs and styles of shorts he found a style he liked and without trying on all the shorts he just bought.  Going past the point of return by tearing the tags off, throwing away the receipt, and washing the shorts, Fat Matt quickly committed the shorts to wardrobe rotation he was like a Show Time Rotisserie he “Set it and forget it.”  He wore the blue shorts and liked them, then the khaki shorts which were his favorite, then came time for the green shorts. There the problem began. 

It seemed the green shorts were purchased two full sizes smaller than they should have been.  Fat Matt was not angry he could not fit in the shorts, but more that he had wasted his money.  Fast forwarding the story a little, when really Fat Matt woke up one day and realized he was one Chinese Buffet away from a heart attack and had to do something he read a ton of exercise and nutrition books that all spoke of motivation (I bet you wondered how I was going to work that back in.) One in particular suggested buying an outfit too small and hanging it somewhere you could see it every day. Still angry Cheap Matt remembered the green shorts. Promptly they were dug out of the closet and hung in a place of honor. 

Fast forwarding again.  I, Fat Matt, lost a lot of weight, I mean a lot.  Over 60 pounds and still could not fit into those shorts. They continued to motivate me long after I hit my stated weight goal until the day I could fit in them.  It took a little over six months of dedication and hard work but I could wear those shorts, and even though by that time they were out of style it didn’t matter I wore them anyway because I had accomplished my goal.

That is the whole problem with external motivation.  To set a motivating goal it has to be; Believable and Achievable. If it is not both of those there is no motivation. The real problem comes in obtaining the goal.  Use my story for example, where do I go from there?  Obviously, back to Fat Matt, since that is where I am today.  All of the so called expert say I have to set new goals.  I had such a low body fat percentage that there was nowhere for me to really go.  If you have never tried to maintain a body of less than 10 percent body fat I can tell you it’s exhausting and eventually all you really want to do is eat cake…mmmm cake…

There is my theory as to why so many of us fail.  Goals have dates and weights are numbers.  Once obtained there is very little motivating you to maintain. What fun is maintain?  What do you get from maintaining emotionally?   Maintaining ever make your waste smaller? No. 

One more quick example.  Just look at the Biggest Loser show.  How many of them have lost more weight than you or I weigh and a year later they are morbidly obese again? Once the prize money is removed, or the external motivation, there is little reason to keep that little waist when cake tastes so good. 

In conclusion external motivation can have a profound effect on a state goal.  The drawback to external motivation is only temporary and not lasting.  Once the external goal is accomplished very few of us are good at setting another goal, especially one that will engage us as emotionally as the first. Maybe the question should be how do we continue to find external goal as emotionally satisfying as the originals? Maybe one day I will find out. Until then, this blog is external motivation and I will let you know if it works.

Now, here is the daily recap.

Daily recap:

Matt: 38 min Jog (at non-Cheetah type speeds)

Kelly: 60 min Speed Walk (probably faster than my jog)

Day 17: Motivation Station Destination Unknown

When people always ask me, “Matt, how do you stay so motivated?” (Okay, they don’t always ask me that question.  In fact no one has ever asked me that quest… are you happy now?)  I always answer (or will when I get asked) I don’t know.  Not, “I don’t know,” but I don’t know as in I don’t know what I will say.  Motivation is that elusive secret that I have been searching for my whole life.  Why else do you think I am writing this blog and exercising daily? If I could easily motivate myself I wouldn’t need to lose weight.

Believe me if it wasn’t for the fact that I had already told too many people about this there were several days I would have skipped.  The thing is I know I am not alone.  If I was America would not have an obesity epidemic.  Everyone would be model thin and still enjoying cake. We can’t though because we are not satisfied with just one piece of cake we always need more.  The thing about cake is al;dkjfao arg! Sorry had to stop myself I started thinking of cake.

Where was I? Ah yes, motivation.  I have been pondering the question of motivation for a long while now trying to work out how to tackle the topic and get myself motivated to write about it.  I have, over the years, read countless books on the motivation.  I, like a lot of you, own several self help books and have read quite a few more over the years trying to determine why I am the way I am. 

I dug some of those books out along with several of the diet books I have. After combing through them I found great advice like:

Example 1: You have to find something to motivate you, something that makes you want to get up every morning.

Or

Example 2: Find something to reward yourself with (a favorite food, a vacation, etc.) and then use it as motivation.

And

Example 3: Set goals, write them down, and then motivate yourself to achieve them. 

It is usually one of the three examples above worded differently or a combination there of.  All well and good but nobody explains how to find the things that motivate you. That is what I believe normal people like us are missing. 

What started me down this road of motivation was the thought that I was once in great shape. I could run 5 miles and bench press over 250 pounds. I could do 100 pushups, sit-ups, and chin-ups. For some reason like a contestant on the Biggest Loser I lost my motivation to continue to keep up with the exercise needed to maintain that.  Examples are not just limited to Biggest Loser contestants there are pro athletes, movie stars, models, musicians, and others that lose their motivation to be healthy.  They pack on the pounds and get just as out of shape as you or I.

So what is motivation? How do we get it? How do we maintain it?  Where does it even come from?  These are the question I have been pondering and I am formulating a theory that I will try to explain over the next few days.  Now here is the daily recap.

Daily Recap:

Matt – 35 min. job.  Also improved my time according to Run Keeper.  Yesterday was a hard jog; today was pretty easy.

Kelly – 1 hour Walk

Day 16: Late for a Pie Eating Contest

Today’s run was hard and to be completely forth coming if I did not have to write this blog I may not have done it.  If anything I am now holding myself somewhat accountable to exercise.

It started off bad with me waking up late for work, although I can come and go as I please, it’s all about the traffic.  Instead of leaving by 6:30 I was still asleep and thankfully my dog, Isabella, is a much better alarm clock.  After all it was her that woke me up 6:40, I would like to say she sensed something was wrong but the truth is she had to go outside. 

I scrambled to get ready and out the door.  The rest of the day was pretty standard until this afternoon.  Today was one of the warmer days we have had.  My office faces due west.  I think you get the picture.  After 12:30 even with the shades closed it gets hot.  We all know fat people sweat and I am no exception. 

There I am working away in my cubical, sweating like a fat person late for a pie eating contest when it hit me, I needed to swing by the store and get a fan on the way home.  Since I came in a little later I stayed a little later and after the trip to the store I didn’t get home until after 6pm.  My energy zapped and the last thing I wanted to do was jog.

It was a fierce fight with me.  Like George Washington I will not tell a lie.  Today I hated every minute of that jog.  Do other people face these same obstacles?  Is there anyone else who feels like I do?  This is really a challenge. 

My legs hurt, my motivation is at zero, and I just didn’t want to exercise.  Then I realized that was the Fat Matt inside of me.  The one who was thinking of pie and angry he wasn’t at a pie eating contest.  Fat Mat would have made an excuse, this Matt didn’t have one.  He sucked it up and hit the pavement.  32 minutes later it was over.  Fat Matt fought me every step of the way.  It felt like I had weights around my ankles, every step was tough. 

I made it through and that is all that matters.  I know I will have many more battles with Fat Matt.  Most I will win and some I will not.  It is the end that matters.

Daily Recap:

Matt:     32 min Jog

                I am also doing 10 Pushup/Sit-ups

Kelly:  45 min total (30 min Jog, 10 min walk)

Day 15: Memorial Day!

Phu Loi, Vietnam

A transport helicopter drops off a platoon in the jungle.  As they lift off the platoon comes under fire by a gun turret dug into the side of a hill.  Quickly the helicopter pilot spots where the enemy fire is coming from and bank towards the insurgents. The pilot yells at the door gunner, “Their getting cut to ribbons! Be prepared to drop smoke so we can call in a ground strike.”

Frantically the door gunner begins returning fire and making preparations.  As the helicopter approaches it too comes under enemy fire.  Bullets tear through the floor bursting through walls and equipment.  Below the platoon races for the safety of the trees as the helicopter becomes the new target for the enemy.  “Now! Now!” The pilot screams and the door gunner hurls his canister of smoke at the enemy insurgents and misses the target. 

“We have to circle back around!” The door gunner screams over the noise and ammunition's fire. Bullets shatter the cock pit window and tear through the sides of the helicopter. Shell casing litter the floor as they continue to spew from the muzzle of the door mounted machine gun.

Again they circle. Desperately the door gunner continues to return fire pumping round after round in to earthwork gun turret.  Never slowing the turret continues to return fire. 

For the second time the door gunner releases smokes and this time he successfully paints the target.  Bullets rip through the floor as they retreat only this time one strikes a vital organ of the helicopter, the main rotary engine. There is only one place to go from here.   “We’re going down,” the pilot screams. 

The helicopter bucks like a bull trying to dislodge its rider and thirty seconds later it comes to an abrupt stop as it slams into the jungle floor.  God must have been with the crew of two because they both survived. They scrambled for their gear and retreated to into the darkness of the jungle. Blessed to be alive they were now going to have to survive behind enemy lines.    

It took three long days before they could be evacuated and their helicopter retrieved.  A few days after that the young door gunner stood outside and with a shaking hand rose a salute to all the friends he had lost so far in the war as he celebrated his 18^th birthday.    

The door gunner’s name was Eldo Roy Shank III. He was my father. 

 My father in Vietnam. 

The crash he walked away from.

This Memorial Day I remember my father and all those who insure our freedoms and keep us safe.  You are in our thoughts and prayers. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 36 min. jog.

Kelly: TBD