Who motivates you? In my case, an 85 year old man

Before we discuss some of the practical tips and techniques, I want to talk about motivation and role models, and my personal favorite.  Why do you want to be fit, and get healthy?  Who do you look up to that is strong, vibrant, full of "vim and vigor" and capable of meeting life head on?

My role model and motivator is Caleb from the Old Testament in the Bible.  He was one of the 12 spies who spied out the Promised Land in Numbers 13 (he's named in verse 6) and was the only other one besides Joshua to urge the Children of Israel to go up and conquer the land.  Well, Chapter 14 tells a sad story-and Caleb almost gets killed for being positive and trusting!  Fast forward to Joshua 14, where we catch up with Caleb again.  It's been over 40 years, and Caleb is now in his eighties.  What he says has always challenged me. 

"Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”
(Joshua 14:6-12 ESV)

I will admit some credit has to be given to God for honoring Caleb's trust in him, but I am also confident Caleb did not spend the 40 years in the desert riding on his donkey and getting fat on all the manna and quail he could eat.  I will bet you he was one of the men training the generations born in the desert for the conquest to come, and maintained his strength and preparedness.  BTW if you don't know, Anakim were giants-Goliath and his brothers were some of the last ones.

Good night-time to get some sleep, tomorrow's lifts will be challenging, but necessary for the giants I am to fight in 40 years!