{"id":3605,"date":"2017-06-02T02:30:39","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T02:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vincentroccovargas.com\/?p=3605"},"modified":"2023-11-07T19:29:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:29:47","slug":"rangers-next-objective-no-excuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/02\/rangers-next-objective-no-excuses\/","title":{"rendered":"A Ranger’s Next Objective : No Excuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

0500 and the alarm is going off. It wasn\u2019t a sneak attack; there was no malice on the part of the clock. This had been planned and directed by yesterday\u2019s me. That guy who realized how important fitness was. Yesterday\u2019s me had the will, and ambition he could see the big picture. But this morning\u2019s me was thinking of excuses as he hit the snooze button. 30 minutes later a text comes through from Derek, \u201csee you at the gym this morning?\u201d And now I\u2019m thinking of even better excuses.
\nThere was a time in this life I would laugh at other people\u2019s fears of physical activity. The idea of total exhaustion was a myth to a younger man. I was in amazing shape once upon a time; I guess that applies to most of us. I didn\u2019t have to count calories or worry about how a shirt looked on me, whether or not it covered my gut. I see pictures of myself that people post where I didn\u2019t have the presence of mind to suck it in before they said cheese. It\u2019s embarrassing, humiliating and worst of all depressing, and piles onto the pressure to just give up and try to get accustomed to being a \u201cfat guy\u201d, and get used to that image of myself.
\nMore and more it\u2019s like I woke up in someone else\u2019s body. What happened, where did I go wrong? I find myself out of breath when I play with my kids. But fast food is convenient, easy, and slides into my busy life like a puzzle piece. So I buy bigger clothes. But still a tick develops where I find myself constantly pulling at my shirt so it doesn\u2019t hug my belly, giving temporary camouflage to the monument of my shame. Out in the world, one might see me as a confident man walking tall and smiling at everyone, while inside I am too embarrassed to go swimming with my kids because people might see me with my shirt off and laugh. My family, they never find anything wrong with me. They continue to think Big Papi is a badass. Little do they know I fear I might not have the stamina in the event they truly need me.<\/p>\n

I tell myself it\u2019s harder for me because I was in such great shape, and it wasn\u2019t so long ago. I tell myself it\u2019s because I went through a bad divorce, and a long custody battle. It\u2019s harder because I had a major move, a new job, a new life challenges. It\u2019s been an emotional rollercoaster. A ride I boarded wearing size large, and exited busting the seams of a XXL. I tell myself this isn\u2019t my problem, that it\u2019s just life. But these are all just excuses.
\nI am not looking to be in amazing shape again, I just want to feel good like I once did. I want to be comfortable with taking my shirt off in public and be able to breathe in a suit. These aren\u2019t lofty goals compared to the challenges guys like Derek have faced and triumphed over. And here he is trying to motivate me. I stare at the phone for a few seconds, though the fog of all the reasons not to get out of bed. And then somehow, miraculously, I\u2019m surprised to feel my feet hitting the floor. And then I hear myself calling out inside my mind from younger days, \u201cLet\u2019s do this\u201d. Today is the day I\u2019m going to listen to him. What\u2019s your excuse? I hope you forget it tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0500 and the alarm is going off. It wasn\u2019t a sneak attack; there was no malice on the part of the clock. This had been planned and directed by yesterday\u2019s me. That guy who realized how important fitness was. Yesterday\u2019s me had the will, and ambition he could see the big picture. But this morning\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_0311-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3605"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4806,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3605\/revisions\/4806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vincentroccovargas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}