Try This Strategy to Kickstart Your Workouts

The first time I remember running, intentionally, just for the sake of running and not because I was playing hide or some other game with the neighborhood kids, I was in elementary school.

Our gym teacher Mr. Stock was explaining to the class that President Reagan was very invested in how long it would take us to run a mile, and as such, we needed to run four laps around the track that we were standing on, while he stood at the finish line with a stop watch, shouting out our finish times.

Beyond having a stitch in my side and chaffing from jeans, all I remember is that I hated running.

Fast forward to college and eight years in to organized sports, my lacrosse coach had us running something called heart attacks. All you need to know is that they worked hard to deliver on the title.

I hated running.

My mindset around running was that it was something that caused great pain, that I had to do as quickly as possible (I was slow), and was often used as a punishment in practices for being late or under-performing.

Of course I hated running.

During my junior year in college, I came across a book about Holistic Spirituality, and low and behold there was an entire chapter on the meditation and spirituality of running. I was a really self-reflective kid, and really interested in anything that might help me understand myself better.

In this book, running was positioned as a chance for some alone time. An opportunity to be out in nature. A chance to be present and mindful in your body. Time to pray and meditate.

This was the first time running was presented to me in a different light. Where for most of my life, it meant being punished in sports, was all about going as fast and as hard as you can, suddenly someone was putting a new hat on the idea of running. 

There would be no stopwatch. No timer. Just whatever music I had on my Sony Walkman (remember when the battery was dying in those?) and some peace and quiet.

I write this not because I'm suggesting you take up running (though I still enjoy it, for the above reasons). But I am curious about what your mindset is or has been around your fitness and nutrition journey. Has it been filled with shoulds? Misery? Someone else's terms?

We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves in all areas of our lives and fitness and nutrition is no different. Most of the coaching that I do isn't around the nuts and bolts of exercise or even nutrition. It's around mindset.

I created the image above for my clients when we talk about having success in their fitness journey, and especially in this world of virtual training. Most of our work happens between the "life got life-y" and "ok, now I see how this works" part of the journey.

The part where we begin to not only see how movement and healthy habits can fit in our lives, but we believe that we can make it work. My high school vice principal always said "believe to achieve." And that is perhaps the biggest shift you could have.