***Motivation gets you started...Support keeps you going***
I've struggled with my weight for years. Most of my life in fact. Fad diets, expensive programs, fancy supplements, online menu guides, calorie trackers, you name it. But nothing has ever stuck. If I do manage to lose weight at all, it all comes back eventually. I couldn't figure it out. So this past summer after nearly 20 years of trying and failing to lose weight, I resigned myself to my size. I bought nice clothes in my size, instead of hiding in my "fat" clothes and wistfully looking at my "skinny" clothes thinking "one day". I threw them all into a bag and gave them to charity. It was liberating...but sprinkled with sadness and a feeling of defeat.
You see, that summer I decided I wanted to try running (again). I declared it on Facebook and asked my friends and family to support me, keep me going and to please regularly check in.
Let's back up for a minute. I'm a full time mom with a full time job and a part time business on the side. This leaves me very little time for my girl, and seeing as she's my priority, she always wins out if I only have a little bit of free time left in the day. I don't go to the gym for that very reason. I already only see her for a few hours in the evening after we all get home, I'm not going to sacrifice another 1-2 hours at the gym, where frankly I've never had results and always felt useless anyway.
So back to the running. After the first few days, no one really mentioned it again, despite my posts. I thought I was doing okay, until my hip gave out around week 3. (I have a previous injury which crops up around this time every time.) So I quit. No one noticed.
So I finally gave up. I'd had enough of wishing and waiting. Gave up my skinny clothes, embraced my fat clothes and went on with life.
A few months later a good friend of mine signed up as a coach at Beachbody and asked me if I wanted to try some of the products. I thought, "Sure why not." I didn't necessarily think it would do anything for me, but she was a friend and I wanted to help her out. So I signed up. My products came (a home workout and a nutrition supplement called Shakeology). I started them thinking "what the heck" and as before, 2 weeks in, my hip gave out and I called her in tears. I cried about how I couldn't do it. I failed again. Part of me was waiting for her to say "You're not trying hard enough / suck it up / work through the pain.". This is the kind of thing I'd heard for years from well meaning friends and family. I told myself if she said that, I was done. But to my surprise she said, "So take a day off. Take a break. Stretch, drink your shake and just be nice to yourself today."
What?
It sounds so obvious, but the truth is too many of us are NOT nice to ourselves. Especially moms. We have this need to be all things to all people and be good at everything because if we can't then somehow we're failures. It's not right but it's true. Especially when it comes to our physical health and well being.
My friend's words struck me to the very core. Later that day I logged into our little Beachbody group's private Facebook page and posted about how I was feeling. The encouragement, motivation and genuine stories of "I totally know how you feel." poured in, and I had my a-ha moment. This was the one thing I had been missing all these years. I always had the motivation to get fit, I just lacked the support. Not well meaning support from family, friends, coworkers, people around me; support from people who "got it".
That's why I love Beachbody. Coaches in the Beachbody family are rarely fitness experts, or personal trainers, or indeed even in shape. In fact, many of them are on their own health and weight loss journey, and it's THAT journey that helps them support their own teams. They are not lycra-clad personal trainers at many gyms who have already attained peak physical perfection and so forget what it's like when you can't perform at their level. They are people like you and me who understand how hard the workouts are, they understand how hard it is to fit it into your real life, and they understand that you have good and bad days. So when you struggle, they know. Because they struggle, too. Our destinations are the same, but our journeys are all very different.
So now, I'm a coach. I have a small team of my own and we run a fitness challenge on Facebook every other month where we provide support, encouragement, tips and tricks and EVERY SINGLE one of my group members is doing amazing! Pounds shed, inches lost, muffin tops shrinking...but mostly, they have found a sense of camaraderie, a sense of accountability and belonging. THAT is what I was missing all these years.
And so 20-odd days into my January challenge I have lost 10 lbs and my pants fit way better. I'm finally doing it. I'm finally doing it because I have support from like-minded individuals who support me as much as I support them.
So if you are interested in changing your life, please get in touch. I really, really want to pay it forward because I get it. Motivation gets you started, but it's support that keeps you going.
If you are interested in learning more about Beachbody products, programs or becoming a coach, contact Sarah Khan at sarahikhan@live.com, and visit her at www.beachbodycoach.com/
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