It’s my birthday season, but instead of a list of “42 things I’ve learned”, I’ve been thinking a lot about the big picture of fitness in my life. As many of you know, I ask about your current goals at your personal training consultation (and keep tabs on them during your time as my client)…but what if we all answered like this:
Fitness was never negotiable.
Fitness was never an add-on to your life.
Being active was never actually a choice – it was always supposed to be on the list.
Now, I know life has seasons. No one is doing their best at everything every day. You can’t be a start employee, perfect family member, philosopher and otherwise ideal human, chef, and pro athlete all at once. I get it.
But even on my lowest-fashion days, I do not leave the house unclothed.
(I bet you don’t either.)
Even when I’m not acing my hydration, I drink something during the day. And while I try to double floss and brush with my sonic toothbrush every evening, if the toothbrush isn’t charged I don’t just go to bed without cleaning my teeth.
So where did we get the idea that being active was this extra thing that we have to strive for? Why is it so alien that I have to talk about step counts (don’t worry, I don’t mind!!), prioritizing foods that are nourishing, taking care of your posture so that you’re not in pain all the time…what is indeed up with this?
I’m sure some of your earliest fitness encounters were either school fitness competitions/mandates or trying to achieve a certain look/size. But what about the part where our bodies require movement to keep them alive and running smoothly? We all agree that dogs need walks, but we don’t? And we don’t ask our dogs to show us the “results” of their walks, but we quit our workout program if that one tae bo class doesn’t give us an 8-pack??
Anyway, it’s weird.
We should all just move more. Structured (classes, strength sessions) or unstructured (those extra steps from taking a bonus lap around Target before you check out, doing a few wall push-ups in your hallway, family dance party).
And, targeted workouts (like the personal training sessions at Tiny Fitness), if you are looking for specific results.
One of my favorite things to train is mindset. But wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have so much to declutter in the mental fitness drawer?! The training tools I love, like TRX and Zumba, are tools that aren’t easily quantified. They’re experiential. Human. It’s so easy to feel the sting of failure if you don’t get the number you wanted on the scale or can’t bring your deadlift up to xx pounds. But, truly, without a shred of live-laugh-love in sight, what about the experience of getting there? Why all the judgment?
So I’ll be here rocking my goals in my next year of life, but they’re all about how I will feel. (Just like I work toward with each of you out there!) It’s totally fine to make changes to your body for whatever your reasons are, but that feelings part is, to me, the best: knowing you can do it, knowing that you can handle things, that you can grow through repeated efforts, knowing you’re making your life better, easier, longer, more relaxed, stronger.
And I will use at least one of those 42 candles to wish that you find ways of moving that you enjoy and that fit easily into your life where they should have been all along, and that you spend most of your time doing the things that make you feel the most alive.
I’ll be out here, very alive, and hope to see you…
- Sunday 9am Zumba (free, meets at Levy Park – 3801 Eastside – stay after class for my birthday party on Sunday, July 30!)
- Monday 6:30pm Zumba (free, meets at Levy Park – 3801 Eastside)
- Wednesday 7pm Zumba at Jerabeck Athletic Center (free / $5 suggested donation)
- Saturday 9:30am Zumba at Montrose Collective (free, 888 Westheimer, street/garage parking, stay for brunch if you want!) – we have moved upstairs to where it is covered!
