Hey there, I've had this thought floating around in my head the last few weeks and would like to share with you.

My "why" for making healthy changes in my life is that I want to live. What I mean by this is that I don't want to merely exist, I want to live my life to the fullest. I want to get up and move around and have fun, not just sit in a chair every night consuming mindless hours of television. I want to take a vacation and have so much fun that I need to rest when I get home. I want to play with my grandchildren, not just watch them. I want to live life, not just exist.

My father died at the age of 53 from a heart attack. Thirty two years later, my brother died at the age of 53 from a heart attack. I've got a decade or so before I get to that age, but I'd really like to make it past the age of 53!

Now, I'm generally healthy for the most part. I have no major health conditions, don't take any prescribed medicines or anything like that. But I'm overweight. So that means that it likely wouldn't be long before those typical health conditions started turning up. That is why I'm deciding not to let anything stand in the way of my health.

My husband deserves a healthy wife. My kids deserve a healthy mom. My grandkids deserve a healthy Grandy. But more than any of those things, I deserve to be a healthy ME.

All that to say this: the last few weeks of focusing on why I want to be healthier has made all the difference in getting through the how. I'm the last one who anyone would have ever thought would get up extra early just to work out. But I'm doing it. It's so much easier to sit in the chair each night than it is to get up and do some Pilates or strength training. But I'm doing it.

We can end this bet strong. This bet may be ending, but this is just the beginning of the rest of our healthy lives. What is your "WHY"?