How do you know you're alive?

I hope you had a fun Memorial Day weekend! You know, it's shocking (and saddening) how many people take for granted the freedom our country allows us. Even more so how we forget those who have passed away protecting our country.

Whether you agree with the war or not, I believe it's important to honor and remember all of our fallen soldiers. I know my grandpa - may he rest in peace - fought in WWII and I'll never forget the few times he spoke about the war.

I was happy to see that on 60 minutes this past Sunday, they had a segment about volunteers who go about looking for IEDs in order to protect us overseas. It was also about those who've lost their lives trying to protect us doing so.

When one of the men was asked if he was scared, he replied with, "Being scared lets you know you're alive."

Then the interviewer asked another soldier, "What does it take to do this job?" I loved his answer, "A belief that you're making a difference."

Let's explore both of these statements and how they might apply to us:

Overeating isn't about food. It's about emotions. It's about being addicted to the "food trance" eating gives us. Think about it - when you're eating do you feel anything? Usually, we don't. So we continue to eat and eat so we don't feel anything.

But that's not life! One can't appreciate great feelings if they've never endured bad feelings. One can't appreciate great tasting chicken, if they've never tasted bad chicken either!

The bad makes the good that much better because without the bad how could we know the difference?

We're so afraid to feel. Just because you feel pain or hurt or discomfort, doesn't mean you have to listen to it or acknowledge it.

Some potential mantras that come to mind:

"Feel the feeling and do it anyway."

"Feel the pain and do it anyway."

"Feel the discomfort and keep on going."

"Just because the feeling is there it doesn't mean you have to stop and listen to it."

"Just because we feel something doesn't mean we have to let it derail our plans."

The next statement, "a belief that you're making a difference," is awesome! Let's see how it might apply to our health and fitness journey.

If you don't believe that eating right and exercising will make a difference in how you look and how you feel then it'll be very hard to stick to this. If you don't believe that making sacrifices and compromises throughout the day add up, then it'll be hard to stick to this.

One of the main reasons why I'm so into 'bodybuilding' is because I find it to be so empowering. The fact that my food choices, and how I exercise affect how my body looks and works is so cool to me!

Newsflash: We're all 'bodybuilders'.

We're all in control. But if you don't believe that your choices affect your health, your waist line and your feelings, you won't continually fight each and every battle to make the right choices between our short term self and our long term self.

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Over two months ago, I wrote about the Academy Award winning movie Hurt Locker. The main character diffuses IEDs as well. You can read that post here.

-Adam