How to make fitness as important as your next bottle of wine, or planning your next vacation, your kids’ weekend tournaments and weeknight games, your next concert, your daughter’s wedding, girl’s or boy’s night out or an evening at the park with the outdoor movies – and like it.
Physical fitness, from my perspective as a personal trainer and fitness instructor for the last forever, has continually been the thing that takes the back seat when the going gets tough or busier than normal.
WHY?!
With personal training, the time allotment is usually 30 minutes to 60 minutes long. Add in the drive time, usually no more than 20-30 minutes, and you have a total of 50 minutes to an hour an a half, and that’s including going to the classes you like to attend at a gym.
You know how good a great workout feels. You also know how you feel when you missed your workout. One miss turns into two, two into ten. And before you know it, you’ve lost your mojo. Getting back that mojo is even worse, right?
So, why even stop in the first place?
What makes you believe that everything else is more important than that you feel good about yourself via a commitment to yourself via your workout? In my opinion, the only reasons to not move your body is because you’re either injured so badly that you cannot move until your injures heal enough for you to move without causing damage, (and I have people in my life where this has been the case), or, you’re dead.
Yes, life changes. Babies are born, graduation parties are had, hunting down colleges for your graduates are necessary. And meantime you’re neglecting your Self in the name of something else that you believe takes priority. Now you’ve gained 40 pounds in the last few years of being away from your workouts. You think about going back. You talk about going back. You still soothe with food. You now have diabetes. You also have high blood pressure and now you cannot walk through your house because you’ve become a hoarder. And now for fear of what’s going to be said when you go back, you don’t go back. But instead you head to the MD’s office for your Metformin and your blood pressure meds, you got yourself a therapist to try and figure out why you’re in the position you’re in, and both doctors suggest you exercise, and still, you don’t go back.
You know the truth is, nobody is going back unless/until they’re ready. And to be ready to face some heavy truths is the path to how to make fitness as important as your next bottle of wine, or planning your next vacation, your kids’ weekend tournaments and weeknight games, your next concert, your daughter’s wedding, girl’s or boy’s night out or an evening at the park with the outdoor movies – and like it.
#1. Face the heavy truths.
The heavy truths:
- Yes, you put yourself in this position.
- Yes, you feel like an asshole.
- Yes, people are talking about you as you continue to grow.
- Yes, fitting into your clothes has come down to the same pair of faded, gray sweats from the 1970’s and that one t-shirt that fits like a moo-moo.
- Yes, getting into your car is a bitch- the steering wheel doesn’t adjust anymore.
- Yes, bending over to tie your shoes makes you choke yourself out, so you now wear slip ons.
- Yes, you’ve barricaded your feelings behind the clutter which is now the top of your bed, that’s covering your dining room table and what’s clogging up your garage where you vehicles once stayed, because you’ve turned it into a storage unit.
So, perhaps the above scenario is partly you. Maybe it hits the nail right on the head. Either way, if you feel you’re out of balance in your fitness and this resonates with you, consider that it’s time. It’s time for you to take a stand for yourself once again in the fitness part of the balance wheel of life.
What comes to mind is the phrase from the movie, The Devil Wears Prada,
Andrea: My personal life is hanging by a thread, that’s all.
Nigel: Let me know when your entire life goes up in smoke, that means it’s time for a promotion.
One thing is thriving, (your next bottle of wine, or planning your next vacation, your kids’ weekend tournaments and weeknight games, your next concert, your daughter’s wedding, girl’s or boy’s night out or an evening at the park with the outdoor movies), while another is dying, (your wealth of health and vitality). Imbalance.
#2. Take the hit.
Take the hit. Take the hit and make a stand for yourself when it comes to your personal physical fitness. When you feel good, everything and everybody around you feels good, and things run smoothly. It may take some diligent time and discipline, just like when you’re chauffeuring your kids off to their speed training or gymnastics, etc., and they are diligent with their time to improve their game.
So why not you?
You are just as important as they are.
Now read that again.
You know, it’s the ol’, “If the airplane oxygen masks come out do you put the mask on your child first or you first?” You’ve got to take care of your mask first so you can help your child. Same same for you in your physical fitness.
#3. Fail and fail again.
Make the time for fitness for yourself while creating a balance. Practice it daily until it becomes a new habit. Fail at it. Again, and again. The more you fail the more you know what you don’t want, leading the way to what you do want. Practice. Be okay with another failed attempt and keep chiseling your path to feeling good about yourself by having another go at it. Have courage, it’s going to be okay!!
Soon enough you’ll have the rhythm that serves you. And you’re going to feel better about yourself. You will be making yourself a priority, along with your other commitments. You’ll go to bed earlier than before because where your workout time fits is before work. You’ll have your gym bag packed and in the car the night before. You’ll drink more water because you know it helps you be a better person. You’ll get off your meds, one less chain that’s keeping you down. Balance is key.
After a short while you’ll be so excited for your daily workout and the benefits it produces. You’ve done all the work! This is one more way for you to learn how to make fitness as important as your next bottle of wine, or planning your next vacation, your kids’ weekend tournaments and weeknight games, your next concert, your daughter’s wedding, girl’s or boy’s night out or an evening at the park with the outdoor movies – and like it.
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