“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith”
Take the Leap:
“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith”
Like everything else in life, to get somewhere, we have to start. Starting something new is the hardest part.
Honestly, all it takes is that first step, then there is no stopping us! I know, we are always a bit scared of new beginnings...and, is ok! It’s ok to fear the unknown, what isn’t okay is to allow fear to paralyze us and prevent us from living a fulfilled life.
For years, I wanted to change my lifestyle. I truly believed that one of the reasons why I (we) was never successful, was because I was afraid to start something new. BUT! Once I gained that courage to just go for it, everything else changed for the better.
This journey hasn’t been all that easy. Things haven’t happened overnight, but with small and seemingly insignificant changes and actions every day, I have came along way - we have come a long way.
So, I encourage you all to believe in yourself and make that leap. That one leap will make a BIG difference, and start you on your road to success!
Remember to acheive this leap all you have to do is:
· Not overthink it
· Believe in yourself
· Commit to it
· Do it
2.Take on a different approach, one you’ve never done:
Have you ever heard this phrase before.
If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.
Above all, I think this one is by far the most true of them all. Before we started our journey to a fit lifestyle, we never really had accomplished our fitness goals.
Why? Because we always stayed stuck doing the same things, which in turn gave us the same results.
Here are a few approaches to things we had never done:
· We joined an activity that we didn’t have to do on our own. We joined Crossfit, a sport we had never done before. We instantly fell in love with this sport, because it offered us what we were missing: support and inspiration.
I cannot express how important it is to find a community where you share similar goals with people. I believe this can help you find that inspiration you need by seeing the effort and commitment of others.
Seeing others achieve their goals can keep you ambitious as you try to keep up with their determination. You’ll be surprised how your attitude can change when you surround yourself with positive people. It changed our lives!
· We stopped eating fast food/ junk. Fitness and health go hand in hand, and by improving one it allowed us to improve the other. Eating cleaner definitely helped change the way we felt internally and boosted our mood.
It gave us the right fuel we needed to go out and practice a physical activity without feeling sluggish. Our nutrition is equally, if not more important, because this determines the way we perform at the gym and in our overall activities. That’s the spirit!
· We committed to this lifestyle. I want you to know, that there is a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you only do it when it’s convenient.
When you are committed to something, that is what keeps you going and pushes yourself when no one else is around you...and that’s what we want to aim for: commitment not interest. Once I realized this and shifted the way I thought, it prompted me to succeed. I have been committed since that ol’ winter day I embarked on this voyage!
· We did it for the right reason. This time we did it for the right reason. Not until you do things for the right reasons, will you put your all in it and make it successful. I believe this time around we had a good reason to make this change a lifestyle. Our health was in jeopardy.
To us, what fundamentally was a goal to shed some pounds and feel better with our bodies, turned out to be that we wanted to feel all along, fitter and healthier! We found something we didn’t know we were missing. By applying these things to our everyday life we have achieved a lot of our goals little by little.
3. Focus on one thing at a time:
Whether you want to lose weight, maintain, or gain weight, run a distance in a certain time, learn a skill, or whatever your goal may be, choose one and focus on that one particular goal.
When you are first starting you don’t want to overwhelm yourself, because when you overwhelm yourself, you tend to want to give up on it. So we want to make this process less stressful and rather fun.
The only way to achieve this is to take it step by step focusing your energy on one goal at a time.
For us our main goal at the beginning of our journey was to shed some pounds, so we focused on that by creating a habit to work out three times a week and remove excessive eating from our daily routine.
4. Make it a priority:
If it’s not a priority, then it means you don’t really want it bad, because when you want something you will go out of your way to make it happen, and you won’t make up excuses, period.
This was another thing that we both lacked back then. We never made exercising and eating healthy a priority. We would prefer to do other things instead of dedicating ourselves to our fitness goals.
Once we stopped this we began to see how everything shifted for the better. We made it a priority to work out 3-4 times a week without fail. Working out ranked at the top of our priority list. I know, many may say, working out is expensive. I agree!
However, what I don’t agree is on, that you spend the same amount of money you would spend for a membership at the gym on another thing that is invaluable to your health. When we first started, I knew we would be tighter on money, but we readjusted the way we spent our money to make enough room to afford something that would impact our lives positively. It’s all about priority, guys!
5. Invest in workout gear:
For some people, like me, something as simple as investing in a nice pair of workout shoes can go a long way as to motivating you to keep it going.
It doesn’t have to be expensive workout gear, it can also be like a jump rope, a foam roller, or stretch band to make you more involved in what you are doing.
I find it more motivating to have these pieces of gear at home as they are a reminder that I have a new lifestyle, and for some reason this works for me because when I have them right in front of me it encourages me to practice this lifestyle at home.
6. Take it one day at a time:
There is no rush, take it one day at a time. All good things take time to develop and a lifestyle change isn’t much different.
Every day gets better, as long as you are putting in the work and effort. When I first started this journey it seemed reasonable to take it slow, this allowed me to enjoy the process and not become overwhelmed.
7. Work out with a purpose:
We did it for ourselves, we wanted to feel better in our own skin and aiming for a long lasting life ahead of us. This has sincerely made me commit this long.
Sometimes I too want to stay home and sleep instead, but then I remind myself why I am doing this.
If you are just working out for the sake of working out or simply just for aesthetics and don’t have a vision or reason. It won’t transpire to a long term commitment. Trust me, I have been there and I didn’t make it pass the one or two month mark.
8. Make a plan and keep it:
If hitting the gym 3 times a week is your goal then stick to it!
I encourage you to be realistic with your goals. If you know that you are not a morning person, like me, then don’t plan your work out routines in the morning, because you will never wake up and you will never make it to the gym.
Make realistic and attainable goals that will set you up for success and not failure. I set out the days that I know I will be able to make it to the gym and I never make any plans on those days.
I stick to what I say I will do. However, I know that sometimes things won’t always go the way you’ve planned it. When that happens we must be ready to improvise.
