When I set down to write this article, so many thoughts came to mind about my fitness journey. I thought about some of the things that led to my weight becoming over 150 pounds which was unhealthy for me. I thought about how at a young early 30 something, I found out I had high cholesterol which was totally unacceptable for me, especially given my mindset about health and having lost so many family and friends to early deaths related to things like heart disease, strokes and diabetes. And I was a massage therapist helping people relieve stress and sharing with them tips to better take care of themselves, yet I was not adhering to my own advice. I felt like a hypocrite. I had to get fit and I learned later than sooner, but I'm so glad that I learned that it was a mind thang.
I struggled for what seemed like forever to shed just a few pounds. I had created habits that were unhealthy to help relieve my then stressful life, even though I had knowledge of many of the tools I needed for change. But again, it was a mind thang. I had to find the power within myself to change my mindset about myself and many of the things going on around me so that I could use the tools I knew of to change myself, mind, body and soul. It didn't come overnight for me. I would guestimate that it was about a 10 to 12 year journey to get to the mindset and peace of mind that I needed and finally have. Each year I was adding healthy habits and removing unhealthy habits from my mind, my life. For starters, I decided I had to, for a lack of better phrases, be married to my dang self. I found myself bending over backwards, doing things for people that I was not committed to doing for myself. The straw that broke the camel's back was when after my 19 year old nephew died and I took time off from work, returning to have my manager share that they had lost revenue from my being gone for about 3 days. There was no "sorry for your loss", nothing. This came from a manger who had hired me twice for a company with whom I had dedicated 13 years of my life, bending over backwards and driving all over Atlanta to give my all to this company. This shifted my mindset so drastically in my thinking of how I give to others versus how I give to myself.
Within this part of my journey I learned the power of saying no to many people and many things which freed up more opportunities for me to say yes to myself. What this looked like for example was simple, yet very important time factors that de-stressed my mind and my body via the stress knots I would have in my shoulders and back. Saying no to others meant freeing up time for myself to simply relax and read a book, take time to draw myself a bath filled with essential oils with time to light candles and lay back and soak to relaxing music. It meant more time with friends that fed my soul, who supported my journey and with whom I could just enjoy being myself around which filled my heart with so much joy and with whom I shared so much laughter. As my mind and stressors lightened, so did the tension in my body which freed me to feel more up to going to my workouts regularly. It was a slow process, but over time, I end up being a person I thought I'd never be, and that was the person who looked forward to my workouts. I had the time, I had the energy and especially loved how I felt after my workouts. I was so committed to myself, to living my best life like never before.
Fast forward to now as I've just celebrated my 47th birthday and the journey continues. I've renamed
#Fitat46 to #FitOver40, a part of the blog where I will share my fitness journey where I'm striving to continue to live my best life and a fit life. And not just fit physically, but fit mind, body and soul. Come join me.
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