Motivation for Fitness

I am often asked what it is I do for exercise. The short answer is, for the past 11 years, I have been doing in-home workouts from a streaming service.  The workouts that include a combination of resistance training, cardio, high-intensity interval training, and yoga.  However, it’s difficult to talk about what I do today without discussing how I got here.  My relationship with exercise and fitness has evolved with each phase of my life, as have my reasons for engaging in a consistent routine.

My earliest memory of exercise is my Mom exercising to Carol Hensel albums.  These albums predated the VCR, and the fitness video craze of the 80s, popularized by Jane Fonda. Each album included an instruction booklet in the album sleeve, and all of the workouts were choreographed to popular music of the time.  My sister and I would always join in the fun, throwing on our leotards and legwarmers, and do the moves right alongside Mom in our living room.  I was about 8 or 9 years old, and my sister was 2 or 3.

Throughout my adolescence, exercise was in the form of mandatory physical education classes in school. This period is not a good memory.  Having to change into the uniform in a locker room of girls, developing more rapidly than myself, was the stuff of awkward, adolescent insecurity nightmares.  I was overjoyed when, in high school, I was able to substitute PE with the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps class.

Exercise didn’t enter my life again until some friends and I enrolled in a college PE class.  Over the course of the quarter, my body began to change in ways that surprised me.  I had always been thin and never given exercise much though but, when I began to develop muscle and become toned, I was intrigued. I started going to the gym on occasion, though still didn’t made it part of my life.

That all changed after college graduation, when I got an apartment with my best friend and her new-born infant daughter.  As she would be home all day caring for her daughter, I felt the need to have some alone time away from the apartment. My parents had purchased a gym family plan years before, so I decided to use the gym as a way to get away, and it didn’t cost me anything.  I have not stopped working out since that time.

Once I began frequenting the gym, I met a trainer who trained me for free.  Working with the trainer built my confidence to work with free weights, and started my exercise education. In these early days, I enjoyed the aesthetic results aspect of exercise. I looked great, and my skinny frame began to fill out.

As I got older, the exercise didn’t seem to be working as well as it had in my early 20s.  I gained weight and was not as toned, despite consistently working out three days per week.  That’s when I learned about the importance of nutrition, and learned that food was the most important part of the equation. Once I figured that out, the extra weight came off and the toned body came back.

Over the years I’ve done everything from weight lifting to running, and everything in between to keep fit. Before my wedding I created a one-woman bridal boot camp to ensure I could fit my dress with no issues on the big day.  Exercise has become as second nature as brushing my teeth.

Now entering my 50s and experiencing the realities of menopause, I have let go of the aesthetic expectations I held through my early 40s.  My reasons for exercise are focused on, what I call the “-ilities”.  They are capability, agility, stability, flexibility, and strength.  These are the things that matter most now.

When my husband and I travel, we like to do adventurous excursions.  I want to continue doing those things, so fitness is now a quality-of-life issue for me, and the aesthetics are the cherry on top.

It is never too late to start your fitness journey or regain some of the “-ilities” that have diminished over the years,  You just need to make up your mind to make it a priority.

If you’re interested in  the streaming service I use, feel free to message me for more information.

Follow me on Instagram at @mystyleismybrand.