Monday, January 28, 2013

The g.y.m.

So...before Phil and I got married, we did something we called the Sexy Challenge.  Many of you may have heard of the Pepsi Challenge?  Well, it's nothing like that! :-)  We made up the Sexy Challenge to help us get into a new and healthy lifestyle before we got married.  We wanted to build healthy habits before marriage because we knew that it would be even more challenging to form them after marriage.  So what we did was we created goals and prizes that made up the Sexy Challenge.  If we met all our goals by our wedding day, we got our awesome prizes!  It was really a genius idea.  And it was awesome to do for more than just looking great, but for feeling great too!  Neither one of us had ever had sex before our wedding day so we wanted to feel really confident naked and love our own bodies.  Which, let me tell you, we so did!  :-)

Wedding Day:


Lookin good, right?!?!

Anyway...we did great.  We both reached our goals and just were feeling really good about ourselves.  Then came the 3 month honeymoon.  That's right.  3 months.  Now before you go and get all jealous, this 3 months we went back and forth with both our families (2 hours apart).  We never really had our own space and we "had" to indulge in all the food we loved in Ireland before we moved back to Minnesota.  Needless to say, we did not keep to our healthy lifestyle!  And I've been regretting it ever since!  Ugh.  It didn't help that after just being married for a little over a year, my Daddy passed away.  Any kind of grief does not help motivate one to want to hit the gym.  Philip did do alot better at it than me though.  He got moving.  I didn't care to move one bit.

That's been my last 2 1/2 years with fitness.  Sure I've tried Insanity and Pilates, but nothing has stuck.  And I always end up feeling guilty about it because I remember how awesome I felt when we got married.  I remember fitting into that super cute swimsuit and feeling free as a bird!  Now the thought of a swimsuit is not freeing to say the least, lol.   Something that Phil and I have done well at however is our eating!  We have become very healthy eaters, which is half the battle anyway!  So it's been a crazy 2 years...emotionally and physically.

Now all that gets to change.  The reason??  Now I actually want it to change.   Like all of you know, it's pretty dang hard to do something that you mentally don't actually want to do or even have motivation for, even if it is good for you.  Since I was already drained emotionally, there was no motivation to go to a gym, or keep doing Pilates at home after 2 weeks.  In the last month however, I have been walking EVERY day!!!!!  Can you believe it?!?!  I am so excited.  And I am finding myself actually wanting to active things.  So today, I joined a gym.  Not because it's a good idea, or because there's an ideal weight I want to weigh (even though it is a good idea and there is an ideal weight I want to weigh, haha).  Nope.  I joined a gym because I want to join a gym.  And you know why it'll work this time?  Because I want to workout.  I don't care what anyone says, it's near impossible to do something you don't want to do...even if it's good for you!

I know this desire is coming from my heart AND brain now.  I know it's been in there for years, but life happens and sometimes there are more important things to take care of.  For me, it's been my emotional and mental health.  Now, however, I am ready to focus on my physical health because my emotional health is leveling out :-)

Thank you Jesus for motivation.  And thank you Jesus for walking with me on this journey.  Life is a journey.  We will never arrive until we walk through those pearly gates.

The end :-)





2 comments:

  1. I am so stinking proud of you my girl! Not just for your healthy lifestyle, but your constant response to following the Lord in EVERY area of your life! You're an INSPIRATION to so many and I'm so proud to call you my daughter!

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