Oh it’s the New Year, and the number of people making new fitness resolutions/goals/intentions/commitments are probably out of this world. No matter where you are in your fitness journey, let’s get one thing straight:
Your mindset.
Just like everything else, whatever unfolds on the outside STARTS ON THE INSIDE in our minds. So before setting another set of new goals, I invite you to take a new approach this year and let’s start by setting a new way to think about ourselves and our fitness. This may be the very thing you are looking for to establish a fit life forever, instead of yo-yoing, or getting off and back on track, or however fitness ebbs and flows in your daily life.
START BY DEFINING WHO YOU ARE
The true way to make any lasting change is a shift in self identity. What does that mean? That means, if you really want to be, feel, and act like someone who is “fit” (whatever “fit” means to you), you must first identity yourself as a “fit person” for you to successful embody that being. If I want to be a snowboarder, or a yogi, or a marathoner, the first thing I must do is to say to myself that “I am a _________” (or at least “I am an aspiring _______”). Unless you self-identify yourself as such, your wishes and efforts won’t stick. So let’s just start there: “I am a fit mama” or “I am an athlete” or “I enjoy my active life”. And think, feel, choose, decide, and act accordingly. THIS is the secret key to starting true change.
THERE’S NO “BEFORE AND AFTER”, IT’S ALL JUST “DURING”
All those “before and after” photos on social media are not everyone’s cup of tea. Some find inspiration from them and some feel pressured and negatively affected by them. I do find some of the body composition changes impressive, as it takes tremendous hardwork and dedication to make such aesthetic transformations… but I also see them objectively, that they are just a snapshot of a state in time, and not the end-all-and-be-all of life goals. What happens when you make a “before and after”? You then have another “after” after that? Doesn’t it just go on forever?
I choose to see it all as just a continuum…just like our physical lives. We are birthed, we grow, we change, we shift, we wither, and we die in our physical form. So stop the beginning and ending, the before and after, and just see fitness as a way of life on this continuum you are on. You either live a non-active lifestyle, a little itty bitty active lifestyle, a pretty active lifestyle, or an extremely active lifestyle….YOU CHOOSE. And just like the seasons of life, things change, so be willing to change. There’s no one absolute “before and after”.
JUST ENJOY YOUR BODY, PLEASE
Look, we all love a good lounge around kind of day and eating lots of yummy things. If you don’t, you are not human. At the end of the day, enjoy life, but also enjoy your amazing body. Our bodies are made to move and it feels GOOD to be in movement! Just ask someone who is bedridden or wheelchair bound…our bodies are ALIVE and MOVEMENT AND MOTION IS LIFE. If you are not moving, you are dead, period! So while we have the privilege of being alive, enjoy enjoy enjoy what your body can do and don’t take it for granted. It’s not a project for you to work on, it’s not a thing you must fix, it’s an amazing gift and machine for us to maximize our potential and enjoyment. It’s our vehicle for us to experience and taste LIFE.
Start living a life where you enjoy the movement of your life force expressed through your body. And you will never see “fitness” the same way ever again.
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Pre-order Lola’s new book “Fitness to Freedom“, available November 2019!