It’s January 7th, 2020. My social media feeds are full of new year, new me resolutions and many gyms are full with new motivation. I love this time of year and I love being motivated to workout. I didn’t play team sports in high school, but I have always had a daily exercise practice, for as long as I can remember. When I was in high school, I was training to go into the Marines, so I started running on my own and working out with the recruiting group in my town.
Of course, when I was in the Marines, we worked out ALL THE TIME. Lots of things like running and strength training. Even swimming, obstacle courses, and lots of hiking. In my spare time, I would run a half marathon and go to Hot Yoga in the evenings.
When I got out of the Marines, I started doing circuit-based strength training and then I discovered CrossFit Excel. I completely fell in love with the CrossFit community and worked out consistently there for almost 10 straight years. I worked out through both of my pregnancies and was back to the gym just a few weeks after giving birth both times.
My husband has been a Fire Fighter for the past 4 years and I have been struggling with my ability to get to the gym because of his overnight work schedule. I usually go at 5:15am. That’s when I decided to get myself a Peloton bike and switch over to working out at home. This was a difficult decision. Working out at home seems boring. You have no one to interact with and how could I ensure I would push myself hard enough? I also knew that I couldn’t do just cardio, but I needed a garage strength routine too. Well, the best thing to do is just to try it, so I did, for a whole year. I loved it so much! Those quiet mornings in my garage were some of the best training moments I have had. Covered in sweat, pushing myself to work harder and to show up more often was so rewarding. For the New Year, I dropped my gym membership all together and made a commitment to myself to sweat every day!
I have always had a great relationship with exercise. I am constantly trying new routines, signing up for different types of classes and visiting gyms whenever I am on travel. I have even made lifelong friends, and found my girl tribe through exercise! I don’t ask exercise to make me skinny or to give me huge muscles. I sweat to give myself clarity and mental stamina. As soon as I don’t work out, I experience a mental fog, and lack of energy. Exercise is the key to my productivity.
As it turns out, exercise also has some pretty amazing health benefits too! Coupled with a reasonable diet, positive body image and weight management are reasonable expectations. I like to think of those as bonus benefits. I found through a lifetime of putting fitness at the top of my priority list, I can sustain the physical and mental toughness needed to be successful. When I am frustrated or angry, a rigorous workout or a long run will usually calm my nerves.
Exercise and physical health are way more than hitting your goal weight. Pushing yourself to reach new physical strength milestones can be the tool you need to push yourself to a new promotion or to make a life change that you have been dreaming about. It doesn’t have to be a big expensive routine either, there are so many gyms and home programs out there that fit all lifestyle factors and price points. The key objective is to just get sweaty!
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