For over twenty years now I’ve imagined myself becoming one of those super active guys who feels great in their 70’s and 80’s. But it wasn’t until just recently it hit me:

If I really want to feel great in my 70’s and 80’s, I probably better figure out how to feel amazing now.

Aging isn’t going to naturally allow me to go from feeling meh in my 40’s to magically feeling great in my 70’s and 80’s. I need to allow for at least a bit of aging. Which means if I want to feel great then, I need to be feeling amazing prior to reaching that age.

Which brings me to today.

I’m attempting to stop focusing on my weight or what my body looks like. The goal now is to get to the point of feeling amazing.

Problem is, trying to make food and exercise decisions based on the criteria of “What would make me feel amazing today? Right now?” doesn’t work. It’s too easy to say, “Well…sleeping in would feel pretty amazing.” Or, “Eating this pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream would make me feel pretty amazing right now.”

So while feeling amazing is the goal, achieving that goal today is unlikely. And the things I do today are not the activities most likely to contribute to that feeling.

Which is why I’ve switched to trying to think the following each time I’m consider what activities I’ll engage in or what foods I’ll eat:

What’s the best thing I can do right now to help me feel better either tonight, tomorrow, or next week?

This works much better for me for several reasons:

• Feeling “better” later tonight, tomorrow, or next week is much more attainable than feeling “amazing” right now.
• It connects my decision in the present, to my desired state of well-being in the very near future (keeping it relevant).
• It motivates me to make food and activity choices in the present that may not be the most fun or pleasurable options (sweets and laziness are off more immediately pleasurable than veggies and exhaustion).

How would it change your life to be able to say you felt amazing every single day?