What Does It Take?

What does it take to motivate you to exercise? I know over the years I have tried to be consistent with some form of exercise, you name it, I've tried it. Most of the time it didn't last. It was six years ago and I saw a family picture of myself. Here I am in the prime of my life and heading in the wrong direction of health. I knew I needed to change, not only for myself, but for my wife and children. Being a husband and a father is the best thing in this world. This was my motivation.

Step one was to make a new habit of getting up early and walking. I'm not a morning person and this lasted for almost six months. I was on the right track but I had to figure out something different, the morning person was taking over. So then I switched to evening walks with my wife and children. We would walk down our country road and enjoy being together. This was a great experience, being a model for our children and living a healthy lifestyle. When winter/dark came we headed over to the track because we didn't have to worry about getting ran over. It's funny thinking about how many evenings we were all wrapped up to stay warm. We didn't miss many evenings. This habit of family walking lasted four years. During this time we even did 5k walks together. But with all good things it changed.

We moved to a new house eighteen months ago (still located in the country, but in a neighborhood). This neighborhood has tons of children. There went the kids walking with us, at least they were playing. My wife and I continue to walk in the evening, but not everyday as before. Our evenings are taken by baseball, swimming lesson, basketball, school events, and whatever pops up. Now I am at a crossroads again. Then out of no where come this Twitter Exercise Motivation Team. Out of curiosity I asked what is this? After finding out what was behind the idea, I was on board. Now operation #temt is in it's infancy, but the possibilities are endless. Will this be new way to help? Could it be a help to everyone involved? Time will tell, but I have a feeling this could be a great thing.