Motivational Mondays (May 4)

It's the start of the week, and to change things up a bit I decided to open up my blog for the first time and allowed a guest blogger to chime in here with his thoughts. It's not that I necessarily didn't have a topic to write about to motivate us all to get this week started off on the right foot but when I read through the guest blogger's post, I figured it would be a great fit for the Motivational Monday slot.

So, here is my little brother Danny chiming in with a guest blog on a topic of his choice.

Roving blogger

My older brother, Luis, wrote the following about me in an earlier post:

“When I was dropping my weight…it was great to have (Danny) around…to emulate…and try to reach to his level.”

In other words, he gives me full credit for his incredible weight loss and change to an active lifestyle.

To thank him for his public acknowledgment of my important role in his life, I’ve decided to contribute to his blog as a guest blogger.

Now, Luis used to be fat. Really fat. But what many of you don’t know is that about 13-15 years ago I also suffered from an EMEL lifestyle (Eat More, Exercise Less) and was also fat. Not as fat as Luis was but, still, pretty fat.

Our fat days never really overlapped so at that time (circa 1994-96) Luis was more active and spent a lot of time playing basketball at the park. I’d always want to tag along with him and our oldest brother, Hugo, but they denied me repeatedly. So, in a sense, it’s ironic that Luis limited my physical activity and, thus, kept me fat while, years later, I would be the catalyst for his weight loss.

Although I was subjected to a host of other abuses by my own brothers, I can honestly say that I’m not excessively bitter or resentful about this time of my life. I’d say I have just the right amount of bitterness and resentfulness. This has helped fuel my drive to stay in shape and also is part of the basis of our – I think “friendly” is the term Luis used – sibling rivalry.

Over the years, as I shed my pounds and Luis packed his on, I never thought we’d be where we are today – actually challenging each other in physical activities like distance running. In turn, I think this has really improved the way we train ourselves. I know that for myself I’ve increased the intensity of my training because I know that Luis is only a few minutes behind me (Mission Inn 10K: Danny - 49 min., Luis - 53 min. Owned!).

Beating each other may not seem like a “nice” motivator to train but I think it’s been working pretty well for both of us. And I can even say that I wouldn’t be too disappointed if Luis increased his training to the point where he actually beat me in a race (the 2008 Mud Run does NOT count). Do I ever think that will happen? No. But as long as we keep pushing each other I think we’ll be satisfied.

One thing that I do wish we’d be able to do more of is train together (queue audience: “aawwww, how sweet”). We’ve only done this a handful of times but each time has been really good. The 5-mile run to our parent’s house, the interval laps at the high school, and the 4.5 mile run at the beach are good examples. I always invite him to my house to train on the weekend but he’s only come over once. I think this is because he lives way out in the boonies. I guess, technically, I’m the one to blame because I’m the one who moved away.

That’s why I’m really looking forward to the mud run in six weeks where I’ll have another chance to run against, er, with Luis.

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Editor's (that would be me, LB) notes:
* the 2008 Mud Run does count
* it wasn't 53 minutes in the Mission Inn Run, it was 52:55. Big difference.
* the picture was taken in June 2007, some 50 pounds ago