STORY TIME

Change is Hard

This is the difference between you and me: I don’t approach fitness from the standpoint that this is a 30 day and done program. I don’t view this as a temporary aspect of my life. I don’t see this as something I can “take a break from” or let up on.

The change I’m proposing you make is the harder one.

When I started A Healthful Life, I had a nightmare of a time figuring out how to convey to people that I wanted to create custom tailored programs for them to find THEIR health. In a way that would last.

When I got hurt, I was really blessed to have a group of people advocating for my health and encouraging me to think about how I wanted my health to look over the longevity of my life. 

This is the difference between you and me: I don’t approach fitness from the standpoint that this is a 30 day and done program. I don’t view this as a temporary aspect of my life. I don’t see this as something I can “take a break from” or let up on.

I know that if I let my workouts go, if I let my eating go, my health will immediately go and I will know that because chronic pain will absolutely debilitate me. I know the potential consequences are not worth the risk.

However, I also know that most people don’t approach health in the same way as me. We, as a fitness industry, have established a standard of the quick fix with no road map of how to maintain the results you achieved.

Meeting someone where they’re at and creating change in a realistic way turned out to be the easy part. The hard part was getting the person on board with the change taking longer than what they wanted.

It means being patient and it means being willing to fail. You have to be willing to try things, see how they work and change them when they don’t. Which means you can’t beat yourself up when you try something and it doesn’t work, you have to be flexible and adaptable to try something different.

I get the appeal of the fast change. The instantaneous results. You want that fast result because you’ve taken so long to change that by now, you wanted that change like yesterday. You don’t want to take the time to make change that will last for the long term. It’s the “I just need to lose 15 pounds” but not thinking past what happens AFTER you lose 15 pounds. 

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What I teach is not the temporary, rigid, give up your whole life change just to drop a few pounds. It’s the change that will teach you how to effectively incorporate healthy habits into your life, so you feel like you have balance and you’re not deprived of the things you love.

So you feel like you’re thriving and not surviving.

So you don’t make a drastic change just to lose it a year later when you permanently fall off the wagon, because you gave up too much and couldn’t take it.

I want you to know health as just life. Not a sacrifice, not an inconvenience, but just how you live your life. Healthy, sustainable change means taking the long road. It means trial and error to find what truly works the best for you, and being able to have the skills necessary to make changes when your life changes.

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I Thought I Needed a New Job

I could’ve accepted that reality, but I knew that wouldn’t work for me. It was more daunting for me to remain miserable than for me to figure out how to change it.

The first time I tried to work out after I had Grace, I totally thought I would have to find a new line of work. I’m not even kidding. I went into the studio by myself and tried to do one exercise and completely failed. Bye bye being a fitness instructor.

My body felt like crap 💩, I couldn’t move the way I used to before, oh and needless to say, I was tired 😴 af. I never knew that I could feel so freaking uncomfortable in my own skin and it made me sad because I didn’t think I had the power to change it.

I could’ve accepted that reality, but I knew that wouldn’t work for me. It was more daunting for me to remain miserable than for me to figure out how to change it.

So I tried switching up my fitness game. I failed. I tried again. I failed again. I got frustrated AF and discouraged doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt on a daily basis. I kept trying until I finally found what worked the best for my post baby body and post partum schedule.

I kept adapting and overcoming until I figured out what would work the best for my life. But I had an upper hand in comparison to other moms around me because I had the education and experience to help guide me through my process.

Not everyone has that background in fitness and nutrition. 

That background gave me the tools I needed to be able to get back to a place where being in my own skin felt like home. My determination gave me the motivation I needed to get to that place.

But I am doing NOTHING with all of these tools and with my own journey if I don’t share my experience with the people around me. Not just so every single person can feel amazing in their own skin, but so they also have the tools to know how to maintain that transformation once they get it.

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