If You Need a Wake-Up Call Talk to Children In Your Family

"Oren, you should have children; I want to meet them," my 12-year-old nephew told me on Saturday. He and his siblings have been staying with us for the weekend.

And it never really dawned on me how much it would sting when a kid is sprinkling salt on your "open wounds," so to speak.

Next month I'm turning 35 years old, and I'm not even in a relationship. I've had several relationships in the past. Still, it never worked out because I was either in significant debt and didn't know how to communicate it, so our communication was never 100% open, or I was overweight, which wasn't too sexually appealing.

I understand why it didn't work out every time, but I haven't been doing anything about it.

And when my little 5-year-old niece told me I'd look like a grandpa by the time I had children, it was the last straw. Yes, I have a handful of white hair follicles sticking out, so what? What I need to take care of is my weight.

And I kid you not; the same day my brother came to take his children back home, I started doing burpees to work on my entire body. And I was a wreck. Adjusting my diet is not enough for a sedentary person like me who works in software engineering. I need to move more.

And so I decided to do 50 burpees every day. Yesterday was day 2, and I showed up. I don't think I'll magically transform my body by doing 50 burpees daily for a month. But I think my baseline for calorie burning and my stamina would increase alongside my increased muscle mass, which would mean burning more calories at rest.

I'm not a fan of eating like shit, and at work, my lunches consist of salads, chicken, and maybe some fries. So I don't think it's just my food. I'm eating pretty balanced most of the time. It's only the weekends when I indulge in some high-calorie foods. That's why I think that moving more and increasing my lean muscle mass would help take off that annoying belly fat that probably influences my overall health negatively.

My parents have told me I needed to work on my weight, my friends said it too. But when it comes from those people, you immediately put your guard up and think, "mind your own business."

When it comes from a child, they don't have any interest other than saying what's on their mind. And because we know that, we feel it without any filters.

I'm excited to see where this journey will take me. And my entire body is sore right now, so I'm on the right track.

Thank you for reading! Let me know if any kids influenced your life too by replying to this post :)