The Biggest Threat
“Facing the discomfort of exercise on a daily basis, makes us stronger individuals who are better prepared to face the expected and unexpected demands of daily life.”
The year was 1981.
After years of dealing with severe chronic depression, my mother had found a high quality psychiatrist (trained in cognitive behavioral therapy), and was starting to take steps to get her life back.
She launched her come back with a visit to a California health spa — The Golden Door. For a retreat of four weeks, she dined on salads and carefully balanced meals while socializing with other 40-50 year old women looking to restore health in their lives.
When my mother returned, she looked so different from the one who had left. To begin, she had lost tons of weight. I had never known my mom to be thin … but now she was. She also wore makeup, a new hair style, and had this new habit — a commitment to going for a daily run.
To be clear … over the span of a month, my mom had become a health-conscious, exercising woman. What a transformation!
I believe that if she could have kept that going, she would have lived into her 80s or 90s.
But she didn’t.
And she couldn’t.
The following winter, she was injured in a nighttime skiing accident (when someone ran into her) and suffered a serious hematoma on her leg. Not only did her rehabilitation take many months, but it was the end of her health come back.
She never ran (or exercised) again.
Instead, in place of her daily run, came the biggest threat to her health and immunity.
That threat was
INACTIVITY
She made the mistake that so many of us make:
since she couldn’t do it all,
since she couldn’t do what the prescribed exercise was (in this case, running)
she chose to do nothing.
And it cost her.
It cost her with:
loss of strength
increased stress
vulnerability to the disease that eventually lead to her premature death at the age of 59
To be clear, my mom had been climbing uphill since her college years when she’d had her first flare up of Central Nervous System Lupus. That episode impacted her brain in a way that made simple tasks difficult. Whereas in high school she’d been a straight A student with excellent organizational skills, after her Lupus flare-up, keeping order in her life became a challenge.
Between that, her growing depression, and a vulnerability to migraines … she was up against a lot … even before she added marriage and children to the mix.
So, her susceptibility to throwing in the towel after being knocked down in the ski accident … literally and figuratively … made total sense.
When life knocks us down, repeatedly, there comes a time where you wonder if it’s worth standing back up.
This is where responsibilities are a good thing.
We have people who are counting on us.
We have things to accomplish.
We still have goals we want to reach.
And yet, I wonder how much easier all her responsibilities would have been
if her commitment had been to consistently moving on a daily basis (rather than being committed to something so specific such as running).
Instead of giving up, she would have built strength, reduced her stress, and kept her immune system strong enough to not fall prey to the autoimmune disease that took hold after a protracted and very stressful legal battle.
Instead, when she realized that she could no longer run, instead of believing that exercise was no longer an option, she could have thought, but what can I do? I’m guessing no one taught her that she had options. That, instead of it being a black or white choice of run or stop running, she was actually given the opportunity to pivot and turn: “Run if you can, but if not, then let’s find a suitable alternative”.
And this is the crux of everything I do as a coach.
I help people see and take hold of what they CAN do,
while helping them build up the strength and skill to get closer to what they currently can’t.
Put another way …
If we think the only answer to exercise is HIIT, and we hurt our knee … what do we do?
We quit.
If we think the only answer to liking ourselves is to achieve a very specific body fat % … what do we do when we can’t achieve it?
The same … we quit.
What I’m offering is a different answer.
Instead of a right/wrong mindset, it’s a growth mindset.
It is this growth mindset that allows for a discovery of what’s the best solution for the unique situation we’re in.
Instead of the bum knee halting all our exercise goals,
let’s modify the workouts to build strength while reducing or eliminating pain.
And instead of connecting our self-worth to our body composition,
how about we notice all the things about ourselves that we actually like,
while we also work to improve our muscle/fat ratio?
And this is who we all need to become … thinking, problem solving people … who learn to believe that as long as we put in the steps, we will reap the rewards.
This is why the habit is more important than the activity itself … because any steps are better than none.
Do these 3 things for success:
Focus more on the WHAT - Exercise … and worry less about the HOW - running/HIIT/yoga/walking.
Make it so that you don’t wonder IF you’ll exercise today. Instead, know that you WILL exercise today … and that the you get to choose HOW that exercise looks today (depending on our energy, stress levels, etc).”
Learn that it is always better to go for a 15-20 minute walk (if that’s all your mind and body can deal with on any particular day), than to do nothing at all (because you aren’t feeling up for the intense class.)
Join The Fittest Me’s online fitness program, Consistency for Results, to have access to daily workouts and be part of a community that celebrates you every time you show up for yourself.
As you build Consistency in your workouts, you become formidable
against the biggest threat there is to your life:
INACTIVITY
Join our growing community and jump on the fastest train to results and wellness - showing up consistently for yourself.
Become ACTIVE in your life, to:
Reduce your stress
Increase your confidence
Build an immunity that you can stand on in tough times
-Coach Rebecca
“Faced with the choice, I will always place my bet on the person who knows that with time and careful practice, anything is achievable.”
-Rebecca Boskovic