PrintBy Glenn Mueller
Senior Writer/Editor
Adopting a healthy lifestyle is not an easy thing to do, so it helps to have a role model. A good role model is someone you can look up to when you’re trying to stay on the straight and narrow path of nutritious eating and physical fitness.
Working for eDiets doesn’t make me immune from any of the temptations or struggles that go along with losing weight and getting in shape. I continue to hit plateaus, and sometimes I just plain fall flat on my face. The important thing I’ve learned is that the faster you get up off the dirt, the better. You can either get stuck in a viscous cycle of shame and guilt, or you can get back in the ring and start throwing punches again.
In order to find role models of healthy living, I usually draw upon my love of sports. If you followed the recent summer Olympics at all, you know that we have a new American hero in swimmer Michael Phelps. Everybody knows that Phelps won an unprecedented eight gold medals in Beijing. But, did you know that the young phenom received a DUI at the tender age of 19? Now, I don’t mean to belittle the offense. My point is that Phelps was able to put this bad incident behind him and quickly refocus his efforts. In fact, he later told Time magazine that his DUI was an extremely valuable learning experience.
After the Olympics, some of Phelps’ fellow American swimmers compared their teammate to Tiger Woods. As a big fan of professional golf, I have never seen anything like Tiger’s victory at the 2008 U.S. Open. As if winning his 14th major wasn’t impressive enough, we soon came to learn that Tiger did it all with a stress fracture in his leg and a torn ACL. When his doctor told him that he needed to spend at least four to six months on crutches, Tiger responded: “No. I’m going to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. And I’m going to win.”
And he did! If that isn’t mind over matter, I don’t know what is. Kind of makes skipping the gym because you had a long day at the office sound like a pretty lame excuse, doesn’t it? Now, I’m not suggesting that any of you should work out if you are injured. But you can certainly use this story as motivation to do a few more sets when you start to feel a little sluggish.
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Like this post? Check these out, too:
– How to Lose Fat in 30 Days,/a>
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