Know who you are, how you function, and your
reason for leading a healthy and active lifestyle.
I know we haven’t really talked about specifics with exercise yet, but don’t worry we will. The goal in these first several emails is to help you see some of the things that are important in you being successful for the long term. Most of us have motivation to start a health and exercise journey, but the hard part is remaining consistent through the ups and downs of life. There will be challenges and it helps to ensure you have a solid foundation, good understanding of yourself, and the reason why you want to live a healthy and active lifestyle, so you will remain consistent when life throws you curve balls, because it will.
When challenges arise, how do you handle them? Do you head straight to the gym to work out the stress? Do you engage in stress eating? Do you go to happy hour to drink? Do you go home and binge watch tv shows? Do you reach out to a trusted friend or coach to get encouragement or accountability? Think about what your response is when challenges arise, take time to reflect on this.
Once you have discovered this, think about what inspires and encourages you to work out or eat healthy? Is it to look good in your clothes? Is it so you can be strong or have good muscle definition? Is it because of a particular activity or job that you love that requires you to stay in shape? Is it because you want to be able to run around with your kids or grandkids? Is there an influencer that inspires you to do it? A coach that holds you accountable? Really think about this. Why do you want to work out and eat healthy? What encourages or inspires you to do so?
Something else to keep in mind that goes along with challenges are emotions. We all experience them. The intensity can vary and present in different ways depending on what is going on in life. It’s important to know how you experience emotions so they don’t dictate your decisions to eat well and work out. There may be a day you feel awful, maybe you had a fight with someone you love, something bad happened at work, or a heartbreak happened. Anytime there are difficult emotions, it can often deter us from what we really want, if we allow it. During these times it is even more important for you to take care of yourself through eating well and exercising.
Exercise is a natural mood booster and stress reliever. It gets blood flowing in your body and if you can choose to be consistent over what your emotions are telling you, a workout can really improve how you handle what you are experiencing. Our bodies were designed to move and movement (and music if you are anything like me) can be a great way to process emotions and experiences. So next time you are dealing with something challenging or emotional, consider getting your body moving or going to the gym and work out and see if that improves the situation. If it does, remember how it helped so that way if another day arises, you will remember how you felt before and after and you will choose to go regardless of what is going on. This will help lead you in the direction of consistent long term progress.
Action step
Reflect and solidify:
- Your why for wanting to lead a healthy and active lifestyle
- How you handle challenges and what you can do to overcome them
- What encourages and inspires you to lead a healthy and active lifestyle
- What support systems you have that you can lean into for accountability on the tough days
- How you best process and handle your emotions
- A goal or purpose you have that gives you hope and helps you see the bigger picture in relation to your health and fitness.
If you feel led to share anything you discovered in this process, I’d love to hear all about it! Respond to this email or reach out via one of my social accounts!
Have a wonderful week!
