Learning the lesson

I looked at my finished workouts in WOWY and could not believe my eyes - my weeks for the last two months were filled 'wall-to-wall' with two, sometimes three workouts a day, except for rest days! For example, Turbo Jam Cardio party in the morning, fast walk during lunch time and Chalene Extreme Push 1/2/3 in the evening? WOW! And to think that only in October I was struggling with my motivation and lack of energy! I am not terribly methodical or scientific, but I learned to extract a lesson from everything, especially if the lesson is a positive one, so I asked myself a question: what made a difference?
As I am writing this, I admit to myself, that just like everything about fitness, there is not ever just one factor, but several.

1. My on-line friends

What helped me to pull myself out of the energy slump was posting on Beachbody forums. I posted every day about my frustration and lack of energy or motivation, or wondered what produced a sudden spur of energy, and shared my struggles with other brave souls; I got feedback and support and returned the favor. I saw that my difficulties were not unique. By learning how my forum buddies dealt with theirs I was able to overcome mine. Day by day, by writing what's on my mind , I was creating and sharing my online public journal, and that helped me think creatively and climb out of my 'blah' state.

2. Food journal

Keeping my food journal kept me aware of what I put into my body, and helped me stay within the reasonable calories intake and quality of food. It is helpful that I love to cook and know that I need to have variety in my food ( another 'lesson learned' from a previous year) for my own sake and for the sake of my family. Preparing food is my hobby and is somewhat of a meditative thing for me now.

3. My NYC Beachbody friends

Myself and 3 other Beachbody coaches started monthly group workouts and post-workout lunch and chat. More and more people I meet through these meeting are becoming my friends and we stay in touch via e-mails, Facebook and phone conversations. These are the people of different walks of life, different ages, fitness levels, different professional and cultural background. But one thing unites them though - their refusal to accept status quo as far as their health and fitness is concerned. On a day when everything looks bleak, it means a lot to me see my friend have a breakthrough with his or her fitness, nutrition or coaching. This immediately picks me up and inspires me to try harder and allows me to see my present problems for what they are - obstacles that can be overcame.

4. Stress management

Talking to my friends, observing others and journaling my progress made me realize that my worst obstacle was stress. When I am under stress, I can't sleep, therefore I don't have energy to workout, start missing workouts - my frustration snowballs from there. This realization gave me a huge incentive for dealing with stress on daily basis. Knowing that a lot of stress is self-created, I analyzed what my major sources of stress are and worked out attitudes and strategies of avoiding or reducing it. This comes at a price - I had to cut down on amount of TV I watch, for example, but in the end the price is so worth it!

5. The ability to 'pay it forward'.

As I wrote to one of you in the e-mail 'this (meaning Beachbody) is too good of a thing to keep to just myself'. Even when I was in my not-so-happy state I started several challenges on the forum to keep myself and other accountable for eating clean and pushing play . It made me feel responsible for more than myself, forced to step up to a leadership role and through that become a stronger and more confident person. It really worked!

In one of my forum posts I wrote 'Where there is will, there is the way. Fitness is not straightforward, and 'life happens' - all the time! - but we in Beachbody are lucky to be so empowered by many tools (ways) to build our fitness from ground up and have so much support to keep our commitment strong! This is really is a unique and powerful thing to have in one's life!
Bring it!