Seeing as I love health and helping others get the best
results in their life in all areas, I thought I would start a blog that I could
start writing down my inspirations and ideas for all areas in life but
specifically fitness and health.
See, fitness
and health has been quite an interesting journey for me. Growing up, let’s
just say I wasn't exactly Sporty Spice. LOL I wasn't the person picked for the
basketball team, and typically, let's be honest, I was the last one picked for
that darn kickball game at recess. But don't worry, I didn't let that
stop me. haha :) Like some, fitness didn't "come natural" to me and
honestly, I remember starting a diet as early as 4th grade. I went back and
forth from diet to diet literally until 2 years ago! I remember specifically a
friend and I in 8th grade thought of a diet called the "Goldfish and
Orange Juice" diet. This is all we would eat! What was I thinking. I
digress.
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Rock Climbing for the first time! |
If you have
ever struggled with finding any sort of fitness and health balance in
your life, I can really relate! I am not
going to call this "struggling with my weight" because
sometimes, it wasn't really my weight that was an issue nor was it what I was
eating. It wasn't exercise, because I did do that too. I could compare my state of mind towards
fitness and health similarly to me being on the end of a teeter totter on the
playground with a 2 year old on the other side.
Mix that with being swept up in the "Fat-free" and "Diet
Coke" world of the 90's, you can really see how one can get out of wack!
Just out of balance trying to get it back into place. I tried going to a nutritionist, didn't help.
It actually made me feel WORSE as they pinch your skin with that thing!
Now that’s a way to make you feel great about yourself. I went to
personal training sessions, only to kill myself and then die the next day from
pain. Never wanting to go back. I just needed balance.
Now how did find this so called
balance? Well, like many others of great
triumph who have come before me, by having a really low point.
It all happened when, I had just been laid off from my first
dream job out of college. While I was sitting on the couch and applying for
jobs and on facebook, I saw a picture of myself that someone
posted of me at an event. I felt like I had been hit by a truck! The
picture had been taken right before I was laid off and after a year and a half
at a sedentary job and I was like WHO IS THAT PERSON! That's not me is it?
Cold Turkey, I needed a change. A lifestyle change.
With all this being
said, July 1, 2012, I had enough. I was done with feeling guilty about
everything I put in my mouth and every day that passed when I didn't workout.
I was done with looking at all the skinny advertisements in the magazines
and stores, and feeling the need to compare! WHY?
One single idea came to my mind that sure, any one could have told me it, and probably did
over and over, but until I knew it in my heart, I wouldn't have really known
it.
That thought was
this, if I truly wasn't at peace over who I was a person, at whatever level
fitness, at whatever weight and at whatever health level I was at, then I would never be
at peace. I knew that I was a child of God and he doesn’t make crap! So.
From there. That day! I committed to be at peace with myself
and that I would live a balanced life between health and fitness. I would
do the best I could with eating healthy and working out 90% of the time and I would be
ok with that.
Yes only 90%. I wasn't going to get made or feel bad
at myself for having a 10% margin for error. As a person who always
strives for the most out of anything I try to accomplish, this philosophy was
like sandpaper for me at first but eventually, because it cut me out of what I
usually do and our of my norm, which is give 100%, it went great.
This time, it went against my normal ways
and gave me permission to say, guess what...it's ok to
do 90% in your life to obtain 100% balance in
your life! More like true Harmony in your life. If you must give 100% to everything, in my own experience, one
tends to fail somewhere. One only has a certain amount of energy.
Note: The book Power of Full Engagement! This also helped me with
understanding this concept. So, back to the 90%. I would be ok with
90% in my health and 90% my fitness. What did 90% mean? Mathematically, I have no clue, but in my
brain, I would give myself an allowance to be ok with
not being perfect!
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Before my health lifestyle and after! Feeling great in my after! Meaning, if I planned to work out 6 days a
week every week not matter what, these goals set by my driven inner self, if I
only did 5, I would be at peace with it even if I did 4, I would be ok! Because
something is better than nothing. During this time in my life, my aunt
told me "You can work with something, but you can't work with
nothing." Thanks Kerry! :) I applied this to my life of fitness and health
balance at this time in my life and magic, it worked. Harmony! Just in a little different way. I
made something work, I did something, I put effort towards my fitness in
SOMEWAY during the week and I had to be proud of that. This also
went for diet. Which now, I don't call dieting, I call it eating healthy,
or eating balanced. |
These things for me, implementing these little
changes in my life have made a HUGE difference in the way I view my life in the
way of health. It does take a lot to change what has been imprinted in
our subconscious for years! But it can be re-written. Your thoughts are
like a re writable CD, you just have to keep telling it the new story or song
it is going to play for you. I truly hope this helped someone today. This
blog is only meant for inspiration, motivation and no hate place. If you
want to hate, please go somewhere else! :) Only love and acceptance here!
Thanks Y'ALL :)
Alicia Johanning