I'm done with my "journey"

If I had a dime for every time I heard someone talk about their “health and fitness journey” or how many times I’ve said it (guilty) I’d be a bazillionaire! Do you kinda feel the same way? I mean, of course being healthy is important. But it is absolutely a buzz phrase right now that I’m getting a bit sick of, plus the very word “journey” just sounds so quaint and peaceful. Anyone who has tried to get their “fit” on knows that staying healthy and fit is anything but those things from time to time.

So now that you know I’m totally guilty of using this popular phrase, I think we should collectively rename it! I feel like journey doesn’t quite describe how staying healthy and fit feels sometimes. I have been on the healthy and fit bandwagon for about 15 years now. Of course, I’ve fallen off a few times but I’m proud to say I've never completely lost sight of the wagon or let it run me over. I digress, back to this renaming thing. When I think back on my last 15 years, I’ve gained and lost roughly 120 pounds between my pregnancies, been hit with an autoimmune disease, started new jobs, hit 30 and watched my metabolism pump its breaks and recently hit 40 and feel like there are two feet on the metaphorical metabolic breaks now.

Like I said, let’s just banish “journey” in terms of our health and fitness. Bear with me here as I brainstorm out loud for a new phrase. There have been times being healthy and fit felt amazing and made me feel sexy and totally on top of my game. In those times it could be called the “health and fitness Rumba” (que sexy growl and a rose in my mouth). But then there have been times that staying on top on my fit game feels more like wrestling a pig in a mud pit. It’s messy, shit goes in my mouth that shouldn’t, I can’t quite grab on to my goals like I want to and I stink. We’ll call this the “health and fitness fight”. Then there’s one of my favorite phases of being healthy; the adrenaline is pumping, you’re flexing and checking out your own ass in every mirror you pass and jumping up and down with oodles of energy without a care in the world. This would be the “health and fitness rave”. Or if you’ve never been to a rave (do they even still have those?) then think of the most fun, loudest high school or college party you went to that was amazingly fun…or maybe that last time you went to Vegas. Next, we can’t forget, the “health and fitness playdate” where you’re pretty much in heaven because everything seems so easy, almost like you’re a baby and everything is handed to you…until someone takes your toy away (protein shake) and you throw a fit. Lastly, I think it would be inaccurate not to mention the phase where you are questioning your every freaking healthy move and just asking why? Why am I getting up at 4 a.m. to work out? Why am shoving all this green stuff in my mouth when I just want a donut, why do holidays and parties even exist? Just to torture me? This, my friends, is the “health and fitness therapy sesh”. I mean, therapy is necessary for many of us, often uncomfortable, where we spend lots of time questioning life, but it’s usually just what we need to improve our life!

Obviously, with all those different analogies, there’s not a nice neat word for staying on the healthy and fit bandwagon. So here are a couple ideas: how about a “health and fitness expedition”? I mean that sounds more accurate, right? Like you’re gonna experience some shit? Or the “health and fitness dancing crying laughing what the hell is going on”?

Listen regardless of what we call it, from what I’ve experienced in my life striving for healthy and fit is so much better than not. I used to live my life not caring what the future held for me. I used to live my life recklessly with drugs and alcohol. I know this might seem a bit dramatic, but since becoming clean and sober and living like I have a future, I’ve realized that constantly making poor choices with my health and fitness is much like making poor choices with drinking and drugging. Yes, yes there are varying levels here but both actions take their toll on your body and both actions say that you don’t exactly love the body God gave you.

When I say health and fitness, please do not picture a certain size or a number. The only time we are a number is when we’re at the Department of Motor Vehicles. YOU are not a number. Healthy and fit looks different on all of us, just like eye color, hair color and skin color. All different, all beautiful. It’s up to you to love yourself and make the right choices to show it.

As an Independent Beachbody coach it’s my job to help you find what your healthy and fit looks like, to go on that expedition with you or if you’d rather, your “health and fitness dancing crying laughing what the hell is going on” thing. Together we stumble, together we support and lift each other up. Together we find the right tools that fit your lifestyle and your goals. Which brings me to a program with new features launching soon. It’s the very first program I ever finished with Beachbody! It’s the first super trainer that I fell in love with and it that made me realize I was in the right place.

Are you looking for where you fit in with this health and fitness thing? My online private challenge group might be the place for you to get started! Contact me and let’s chat about the direction you want to take your health and fitness expedition!

Listen, this is not always easy and rarely pretty, but either way you look at it, life is tough. We can go through this beautiful tough life out of breath and with low self-esteem or we can go through it together jumping up and down and crying and dancing with each other.

Send me a message or comment below!