Find What Motivates You

My dear 6 year old Tyler has been eating better over the past few months.  We've seen improvement but we still have a ways to go. 

Last week we signed Tyler up for football for the upcoming fall.  At the sign up we were reminded to eat right and lay off the junk food this summer.  He needs to do push-ups and sit-ups and condition himself for running in the heat.  Tyler loves sports and being outside.  I think the workout will be easy for him but he needs to improve his diet.  While we were signing up I looked him in the eyes and told him that he has to eat right if he's going to play football.

A few days later I took the kids to the drive-thru at McDonald's for our weekly fast food pick up and visit with the great-grandparents.  As I'm pulling in Tyler says, "What about my football?"  I said "What?"  What was he talking about?  We don't have a football in the car, practice doesn't start for 2 months.  Tyler said, "I can't eat McDonald's because of football."  I almost cried I was so proud of him.  He gets it.  He does listen to me.

As I sat there in the McDonald's line smiling and telling him how proud I was of him, I realized I was still in the McDonald's line.  What should I do?  I've already called the grandparents and I have their order ready to go for McDonald's.  We were in a hurry.  So I first looked at the menu with Tyler and tried to find something he would eat that was maybe a little healthier than his normal fries and chicken nuggets.  No luck.  All of the other fast food options in our town are not any better.  So this was my chance to teach "everything in moderation", which is one of my biggest weaknesses.  I told him that it's ok to have junk food once a week if we are eating properly the majority of time.  I think he understood.

What amazes me about this is that a 6 year old is capable of being motivated and driven.  As adults we search for our motivation.  My current motivation is that I don't want to gain weight while I've got this boot on my foot.  I can't do cardio and I'm motivated to not blow away my weight loss progress I've made.  To my surprise a 6 year old is old enough to be motivated.  So no matter what your age - young and old - go find your motivation!