What is holding you back??Age? Kids? Not an excuse...here's some inpiration

So those of you who are friends with me on FB know that I have been putting up a lot of motivational pics and am getting feedback on them....I'm not only putting these up there for me (because I really need it!) but I'm putting them up there to hopefully continue to inspire other friends and family to start making the right better choices in their lives to be healthier.  I know that I have inspired many of you and it humbles me, it makes me proud to know that I have without intending to have helped many of my friends and family to get on the healthy lifestyle road.

I put up this picture this week as I am a big fan of prepping my food early

  I was especially proud and excited when I got this post from my long time OB/GYN in CA (she delivered all 5 of my pregnancies!):  "You continue to inspire and amaze me! I have lost 12lbs and I am finding time to do what I need to do even when exhausted from work! I say it everyday - there is no magical pill- if there were I would be thin and in shape."
But then, I also talked to my Mom who had recently gone back to the Dr and was happy to report that not only had her cholesterol gone down, he was removing from her chart that she was pre-diabetic AND no longer hypertensive!!  SUPER YAY!!  Both of these women are celebrating a few anniversaries of their 30th birthday and they are making changes....it doesn't matter how old you are  and here is proof!  Age is not an excuse!!

I had another gal pal of mine post on another photo which kinda bummed me out.....

She posted...Would you watch my son then?  My gym doesn't have childcare...another mutual friend posted come to mine it's cheap and it does offer care...she replied, mine is free.
At first, I have to admit I was a little perturbed, you are using your child as an excuse when there are ways around that...then I thought well where is your accountability...a free gym is obviously free of weight loss too - you have nothing holding yourself accountable...but that is something that I need not everyone.  And then I started to think about a friend of mine who has been an inspiration to me...no not my trainer Shelly you already know what an inspiration and dear friend she is to me, she really introduced me to this healthy lifestyle and now I am an addict dedicated like others that have been before me and other that will join sooner hopefully rather than later.  No, it made me think of my friend from Iwakuni...I met her just over a year ago, through a mutual friend.  She had come down from Iwakuni to deliver her twins...she was here because of the higher risk with the twins and the hospital near her did not have the means to assist a high risk pregnancy so, they all get sent down here to the island.  This woman was the sweetest woman I had met, she had a daughter (who wasn't even two yet) and here she was with twins in the womb away from home here indefinitely to deliver her babies.  She was staying at the Storks nest and making the best of it - living out of basically a hotel room with a small kitchenette.  I met her and she was HUGE!  I am not saying this to be mean...I carried twins twice and if you met me then you know I was GIGANTIC (bigger than huge!!)  She told me that she was missing running and couldn't wait to get back into it...Now as anyone who has been around a pregnant woman knows, we get swollen ankles, water retention and are puffy all over sometimes right....well with twins, it is even more so, you get to a point that you really don't fit into even your own shoes!  Flip flops are a staple because they are easy to slip on but most of the time, you are wearing your husbands or you go get bigger ones...REALLY!  So now that you have the mental picture....she has the babies, they have to stay here for a few weeks to get them strong enough to fly back home, they are real fighters and are adorable!  We keep in touch via FB a bit and she's planning to come back to the island for girls christening...we say that we will get together but you know how that goes...it happened I had a competition the same day that the girls had their service so I was unable to go BUT, I ran into her at the exchange...I had to do a double take - I almost didn't recognize her!  This woman was tiny...but she was pushing this triple jog stroller and it clicked...OMG this is Jessyca!!  This is the Jessyca that was 3 times smaller than the Jessyca

So, to my friends that use their kids as an excuse....it's not one.  There really truly are many things that you can do with your kids to incorporate them into a healthy lifestyle...and what better way to set the example than to lead?  Find something that you all like to do, go run in the park, ride bikes, are your kids smaller like my friend above?  Put them in the stroller and use their resistance to gain your muscle.  Look online for exercises you can do in the park while the kids are playing, is there a bench?  Great, do some bench dips, push ups, step ups...three easy exercises that you can do while you watch your kid get his/her exercise (running and playing).  Is your child in sports?  What are you doing while they are practicing? Instead of sitting on the sidelines, get up and walk.run around the field...how about help the coach out and get out there and run with the kids?  There are no excuses it's taken me time to realize that but, you have to have the desire and if you don't then where does that leave you?  On the sidelines, looking in....

Today's quote of the post: 

"It's not that some people have willpower and some people don't.  It's that some people are ready to change and others are not." James Gordon

My hope, wish and prayer is that you become ready to change and have the willpower to to do it.  It took me time to get there and it's been a long hard road, one that I've been on and fallen off of before - Hey, I'm human that is what we do...but I'm in it for the long haul, setting the example for my family and luckily for my friends as well and making some new ones along the way.  Thank you to those who inspire me, there are many of you, there truly are.  And thank you to those who I inspire....little do you know that when I hear that I was able to give you some inspiration, it swells my heart with pride,  and inspires me to keep on this road so that hopefully you too will be an inspiration to others and they will inspire others and so on...leading to a great big ripple in the healthy lifestyle living! 

Hugs to you all!