“today i win” is a new motivational clothing line from Team Canada Sportswear Inc. designed to help people get and stay motivated to reach their daily fitness goals. We are a small Canadian company trying to break into the specialty running market here in Canada and in the USA.

My story is not unlike many 40 something adults in North America.  I played sports through High School and into my early twenties, but once a career and family came along, my fitness gave way to beer, pizza and wings.  You don’t really notice your metabolism slowing down until one day, you can’t put the chip bag down and you are 30 lbs overweight.  In my case, at 6’1”, I never really felt “fat” but I knew that I had a gut and sometimes that gut felt pretty uncomfortable.  Fast forward to my 40th birthday.  After a recent trip to the ER with chest pains, everything turned out ok and it was just a build up of stress but it was certainly my wakeup call, or so I thought.  I started to work out to loose some weight but after 6 weeks, real life once again became my priority and the next thing I know, I’m back to little or no exercise and eating pizza, wings and beer.  Soon after this fall from grace, I had a checkup with my Doctor.  She advised me that I have 2 choices.  Either I loose 20 lbs and start exercising my heart or get used to the idea of taking pills for the rest of my life to treat high cholesterol and a number of other ailments that are sure to arise.  I opted for option number one, but the question was how was I going to stay motivated?

You would think that good health and family alone would be enough incentive to stay the course and keep fit but it has never been that cut and dry or that easy.  I realize that I can do anything I put my mind to, its just that if the ultimate goal is too far off, I can easily get distracted, that is when I decided to focus on today as opposed to tomorrow.  I put my long term goal to paper as well as my daily goals that will get me there.  Now I only worry about succeeding today.  Loosing 20lbs doesn’t seem so hard any more because I’m not trying to lose 20lbs today.  All I’m trying to do today is give my heart a good workout and set myself up mentally for a successful day.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.

Once I realized that it was a daily battle and I made winning today my priority, staying with the program seemed to get easier and easier and this is where my shirts come in.  My shirts are my mental battle cry in the morning to reach today’s goal. I always lay out my “Today I win” running shirt the night before so that it is the first thing see in the morning.  I put the shirt on as soon as I wake up and that is the first battle won.  Now I don’t allow myself to get into the shower until my run is completed.

I never though a simple t-shirt could change my life but it has.  I win the mental battle with myself every day and I set myself up t be a winner.  I am reprogramming my brain on a daily basis to convince myself that I can reach today’s goal.  When I am out running and my brain tries to take over my body and convince me to stop running, I just think of my mantra “Today I win.  I will finish what I started.  I will reach my goal”.  You know, I haven’t let myself down yet nor do I ever intend to again.

I recently purchased a new $180 pair of running shoes and the 20 something sales person asked me what I’m training for.  I stopped for a moment and said “my life”.  Cool was his response and that’s what I thought too “your doing it, cool”.

We currently offer our shirts in two styles, cotton t-shirts ($19.95 suggested retail) and moisture wicking performance t-shirts ($54.95 suggested retail).  New performance shirts and accessories will follow after demand for our products increase.

More information can be found at our website www.todayiwin.com along with participating retail stores.  We encourage all runners to go to your local specialty running store and ask for our shirts by name, that way retailers will feel the need to add our product to their current mix.

Thanks for letting me share my story with you.