What was it? Climbing Half Dome? Painting a room? Cleaning a closet? Driving 1000 miles? Ice skating backwards? Meeting someone new? Arriving late at a party? Doing your first 5k? Running your first marathon?
So what happened? Did you do it? I bet you did. I bet you totally overcame your uncertainties and totally did whatever it was. I bet you did. You know why? Human spirit. We WANT to set goals and kick them in the teeth. We want to better ourselves. We want to have rooms that have pretty walls. We want to learn new things. While we might not want to GO to the party, there is usually some reward in going, such as being there for the host or hostess, seeing an old friend you haven't seen in a while, meeting someone who you have wanted to meet, or even watching the glee on your child's face because they wanted to come so much.
What makes working out different? How is starting a fitness journey any scarier than any of the other things I mentioned? You know what? It's not!! It's time to own it and believe in yourself.
I hear people tell me all the time , "I'm too out of shape to do that" or the worst of all "I'm too old to do that..." Nope. You aren't. I'm not saying that your comments are not valid. I'm not saying that at all. Your comments are valid to you and that's your truth. What I AM saying, is that you can change the stories you tell yourself and change your life. You CAN do almost anything you set your mind to do.
Let me tell you a funny story. When I was 25, I bought my first home, an upstairs condo. It was really a sweet condo, with a large living room that had 6 foot vaulted ceilings. I loved it. My first husband moved in with me, about 9 months before we got married. He was a strong guy, a welder, and firmly believed that he should do the heavy lifting and the hard stuff, because it was too much for me. We were always at odds over this, because I'm actually a pretty competent human being at solving problems and figuring out how to do what I want or need to do! One day, he was off helping his Dad with something across town. We had talked about rearranging the furniture in the living room for weeks, but not done anything. We had this one piece of furniture that was super heavy. Seriously. It weighed a metric ton. I don't even remember what it was, but I DO remember it was very heavy. By the time he came home, I had moved everything. He walked in the door and just stood there. Then he looked at me and asked who came to help. I told him that I had done it myself. He didn't believe me. I literally ended up having to demonstrate my method for moving furniture. Looking back now, I'm sure he had to fight back laughter, but I did what I wanted to do and got it done. (If you know me and have worked out with me at all, you know I'm what they call a quad centric athlete. My legs are super strong. my upper body, not as much. I had seated myself on the floor and moved furniture using my legs to push it. It was incredibly hard, and would not have been a good idea with anything tall, but I don't think I moved anything tall! LOL) This is a great example of "you can do anything!"
When I started doing Beachbody workouts, I couldn't hardly keep up with the workouts. They were hard! I actually started with a Shaun T. weeklong challenge. I didn't realize until later that it probably wasn't at my level. By the time I realized, I was halfway through the week and in love with it. I was modifying things and marching in place when I was overwhelmed, and just kept going like the Energizer Bunny.
This quote, by Arthur Boorman is a guiding light for me. It says it all. If you don't know who Arthur is, do a google search. Arthur is probably the most determined guy ever. He was injured as a paratrooper, used walking canes, started doing DDPYoga, and now can run! Really. I encourage you to read his story, print this quote out, and paste it in places where you see it all the time, as a reminder. YOU CAN DO IT! Keep pressing forward, keep trying. You will get there.
On 7/10, I officially started my Beachbody journey. That was 49 days ago. I joined a challenge group and signed up for Beachbody on Demand and started drinking Shakeology every single day. In that time, I've worked out on 43 of those days. Pretty amazing if you ask me! I'm NOT a girl who likes to get sweaty, honest. But, I AM a girl who is focused and determined. I've set a goal to get rid of all of my extra weight and live the rest of my life in a healthy, happy way, that doesn't include being overweight and out of shape. I've also lost over 10 inches and 8 pounds. I've dropped from a 2X to an XL in tops and I've dropped a size in bottoms. However, the biggest change is that I look forward to my workout time, and I MAKE time to do it. It is important to me. I matter. Taking care of me, taking care of my physical needs is something that I tend to put aside as soon as something goes wrong, but you know what? There will always be something. Always. If I am not the best version of me I can be, how can I help anyone else? That's the key. Instead of looking at this as only for me, I'm looking outward at the impact of my changes. Living my life to it's fullest is SO important to me. We are going to Hawaii in November. For the last couple of years, when I've flown anywhere, I was on the verge of asking for a seatbelt extender. This year, I've flown twice and each time, I've been able to tighten the seatbelt a little more. I have wanted to learn to paddleboard since I started seeing people doing it in Hawaii. I have decided I'm going to learn while we are there.
If any of this resonates with you, or makes you feel like you want to talk more, please reach out. Call me, text me, send me a message on Facebook. Whatever it takes. If you are in need of a new way of working out because of an injury or because of age or anything else, please reach out. I'm here, I'm more than willing to help, and I will either have answers or know where to get them!!! Let's do this thing together!!!!
- Have a beautiful day!
P.S. I'm still doing Weight Watchers and still loving it! :)
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