Exercise & Wellness: The Details
There is no question… we’ve all heard that exercising and moving your body is one of the first and foremost components of leading a healthy and well lifestyle. But why? And why can it be so hard to start and stick to a fitness routine? You know it’s GREAT for you, and yet you say you’ll start tomorrow over and over, or maybe you start and stop and start and stop. How do you “get into the swing of things”, and stay there? Let’s dive in.
Let’s start with the WHY of it all. Why exercise?
Physical fitness, exercising, moving your body in ways that feel good to you, is a slice of the Full Circle Wellness pie for several reasons:
Exercise energizes you…
Improves your mood…
Reduces anxiety…
Helps build confidence…
Helps you sleep…
Heals your brain…
Strengthens your immune system (and muscles!)...
It can improve your posture…
Ease joint pain…
Lower your weight…
And even give you healthier, more clear skin!
In my own healing and wellness journey, I started exercising in support of my Mental Health. My therapist invited me to start a meditative walking practice, so I did, and it didn’t take very long to start feeling the other effects of regular exercise. Brain fog lifted, I slept better, my confidence improved, and I had more energy. This is when I started to realize the deeply rooted connection between the Mind, the Body and the Spirit.
Not only was walking improving my Body, it was helping my Mind and fueling my Spirit, because I was creating time to spend with myself, for myself, by myself.
This is why we exercise.
When we spend this kind of time with ourselves, FOR ourselves, by ourselves, we are ingraining a subtle but powerful Truth in our hearts: I AM WORTH IT.
A belief that is necessary for any kind of health and wellness work.
When I started therapy, I hardly even believed that I was worth the work. But as things started to unfold, my mindset started to shift. If I could commit to helping myself in this way, in what other ways could I commit to helping myself?
But HOW?
It can be SO hard to start and keep a fitness routine. I know. I’ve been there. I won’t go into the years I spent doing fad diets, and getting “into” one thing or another, only to give up later. I’m going to get straight to how I finally made it stick:
Start small. SO small. I started walking around my neighborhood at the behest of my therapist… paying attention to the birds and the trees and the sun and the wind and my thoughts. I wasn’t even thinking about the exercise. Walking was easy! The walks could be short, simple… small. But he goal was something else entirely, it wasn’t just about the exercise, which made it feel different.
That being said, your WHY matters. Find a reason, like “I want to improve my mental health”, something that doesn’t look or sound like “I want to get shredded and lose all of the weight because I hate the way I look right now.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it here again… you cannot shame yourself into change, you can only love yourself through evolution. Move because you are able bodied. Get strong for your kids. Run to prove to yourself you can do hard things. Walk to be with Nature. Something that isn’t rooted in shaming yourself.
Meet yourself where you’re at. If I isolate my fitness journey from everything else… I started at 218 pounds, after two knee surgeries, and no concept of truly, GOOD nutrition. I met myself where I was. I couldn’t run, but I could walk. I couldn’t get in the squat rack, but I could use a resistance band. I modified everything and focused on what I COULD do, not what I couldn’t do. The body adapts and improves over time. If you try to go hard all at once, you WILL get injured. Trust me, I’ve been there too.
You have to change your MINDSET about fitness. This is the biggest key to success. There is absolutely no other way. Here are four, crucial mindset shifts, that had to settle into the core of my being for me to finally BE “someone who works out”:
I had to BELIEVE I was someone who works out. I say it all of the time. It starts with belief. The story you believe to be true about yourself matters more than anything. You must change the story about who you believe yourself to be, in order to change your life. AND, you have to be ready and willing to change that story, because sometimes, a victim story full of excuses serves you, it lets you feel and stay safe. Unfortunately it holds you back from growth. If you believe you’re just a couch potato who will never be a runner, then that will be true. If you believe you can and will conquer a “Couch to 5K” running plan, then that will be true. It starts with belief.
Then it takes ACTION. Yup. You have to actually do the things, y’all. But here’s what’s important: Pick something you LOVE, or at least LIKE. I do not like to swim, I kind of hate the water. I broke my leg trying to get into mountain biking, so I’m terrified of riding an off-road bike. I hate burpees. So I don’t do any of those things. But… I LOVE Cyclebar, so I go 3-4 nights a week, no questions asked. I want to be there. I really like lifting weights, I like feeling and being strong. So I found a strength plan that works for me, and I commit to following it. I also really like to run. My knee does in fact hinder my running performance, but I focus on what I CAN do, and when I can’t run, I walk.
Here’s the next must: CONSISTENCY. And just to be clear, consistency isn’t perfection. Consistency is progress. Consistency is showing up again and again, no matter what. Consistency is missing two days and showing up the third, and then showing up again. Consistency is commitment. Because you WILL have days where you fail to show up. Or you show up less than how you wanted to, and that’s OKAY. It’s about progress, NOT perfection, recommit the next day. And then recommit again. Keep the promise TO yourself, FOR yourself.
Piggy-backing off of that… Fall in love with the PROCESS, and forget the results entirely. Trust that any kind of big fitness goal (like weight loss) is going to take a lot of time to achieve. Minimum six months. And then fall in love with the daily grind. Once you do that, you’ve started to master DISCIPLINE, which is what happens when you start showing up regardless of whether or not you even want to because you’re committed to the process.
5. Last but not least: GET SUPPORT. I used to think “I knew what to do” and just wasn’t doing it. No. If I’d known, I would have been doing it, but I used to be full of excuses. My journey started with walking, with the support of my therapist. I then joined the Fit Girls community on Instagram where I learned about consistency, and portion sizes, and how to meal prep with the support and guidance of a larger community. Then I broke my leg trying too much too soon (mountain biking), and I had to start at the bottom. This is when I truly learned to take my time, with the support of a physical therapist. I learned that consistency wins over extremity every single time. Now, by choice, I work with a fitness coach!
Now I know that all of that sounds good and is “easier said that done”, but let me remind you of one last truth that finally settled into my bones along the way: You can either show up for your wellness NOW, or show up for your illness later… but one way or another, the body keeps the score.
Believe that you can, and you WILL.
Be well,
L
