If you have been lifting weights, running, swimming, biking or working out in general for any length of time, eventually you have one of those conversations. You know the ones. They usually take place after you do something that takes a little strength, agility or stamina and invariably you get the questions about how you did “that.” “That” in this case is often some task that to you seemed rather simple, but to the person asking the question, often an amazing feat.

At other times, someone may notice that you are looking a little better, bigger, leaner, or healthier and then they ask what you have been doing to get “that way.” “That way,” meaning not overweight, not spilling your gut out over your belt, not being out of breath, not wearing a size XXXL, or perhaps, just not walking around with a doughnut in your hand all the time.

You want to give them the real answer and you resist the temptation to go into detail, because if you’re like me, you know that they are only being polite in most cases and they really don’t care to hear a rundown on what you have been doing. So you give them a quick response about how you have been working out and hope that will suffice.

Every once in a while, however, you get that one person who continues the conversation and turns it around to their own favorite subject, themselves. They begin the “used to” conversation. It begins something like, “I used to play ball in high school” or “I used to wrestle” or “I used to lift in college” or “I used to bench 600 pounds” or “I used to run a one minute mile.” Yep, they used to do a lot of things.

That’s when it’s time to pull out your own personal “used to” list. But this is one is a little different from theirs. There is a subtle change. It should not be what you used to, but what you ARE used to. My list would start something like this:
- I am used to getting up at 4:20 in the morning.
- I am used to being in my gym at 4:35.
- I am used to lifting 3 or 4 days a week
- I am used to doing some intervals or running two or three days a week.
- I am used to eating clean and keeping my weight under control.
- I am used to handling a job, family obligations, keeping up a home, doing volunteer work and still finding time for fitness.
- I am used to never missing a workout.
- I am used to looking for a challenge.

Well, you get the idea. Fitness is not something to be looked back upon with fond memories and the nostalgia of what once was. Fitness is today and not yesterday, and more importantly, tomorrow. For those of us who take it seriously, it will always be a part of our lives, but then again, I guess it all depends on what you are used to.

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In Fitness & Friendship,

Mahler

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Past Motivators: