fitness & transformation
The Red White and Blue Fruit Pizza I made today, on a sugar cookie crust, with homemade whipped cream cheese frosting and patterned berries! July 4th-themed desserts are a simple holiday tradition I love to keep up. 😊
This one is a little different from usual on everyday magic, and it’s inspired by the idea of freedom and by everything I gain from training, working out, and taking care of my body and mind. If working out for physical wellbeing and mental clarity and success isn’t something you relate to, you can substitute Gym and Fitness Things here for whatever your Thing is! I write about it because it’s one of the most powerful tools I have…
Happy Independence Day!
I worked out hard today. I’m in comp training again and absolutely loving it.
On my drive home, I thought a lot about my fitness journey, how it started, and where I’ve been since then. I thought about the transformation I’ve experienced in my life because of discovering powerlifting, movement, strength, connection with my body, learning how to eat better, and all the dedication and passion wrapped up in this journey.
This dedication and passion requires habits, consistency, returning, showing up time and again, even when you might not feel like it. Sometimes I lose sight of the Why behind all that and get into a rut or start to lose the vision or my own will and determination for the daily brick laying.
It's 4th of July. And in response to those lags, complaints, or slips of vision and willpower, today I’m thinking: this is the price of my own freedom. These habits, this great work I love, showing up and giving it my best, for the process and for the compounding effects over time — this is the hands-down worthwhile cost of independence in my life and with my body, mind, health, and success. Everything affects everything else. I became an almost unrecognizably stronger individual and more capable, determined person when I learned how to utilize training and food (fuel!) to positively impact my body and mind. That’s why I say this stuff changed my life.
If maintaining my focus, staying balanced with my habits, eating well, and working out hard is the sacrifice and effort required to pay the dues of KEEPING that freedom… well, then I want to remember at all times that it’s a gift and something I fucking LOVE. I want to always remember this is the shit that made me and will continue to make me. I don’t want to give up this freedom. I don’t want to give up the transformation I gained and worked so hard for. I want to keep working hard for it.
Sometimes I forget, and the daily work feels stale, or — especially with nutrition — sometimes it feels like an aggravating, untenable, massive job that I can’t or won’t successfully stay committed to and achieve.
But here’s the thing: I’ve done it before. I have watched massive, radical transformation occur, in both my body and my mind. I LOVED it. I have only good things that came out of it. It was so worth doing. I would never, ever want to go back to who I was and the way I was living before. I would never trade my fitness introduction and journey. I won’t give this up. I don’t want to forget that.
So why do I sometimes act like maybe I can behave in a way that suggests I don’t care if I lose the transformation or drift off from that journey and commitment and change?
I don’t want to do that anymore. This is the good stuff. I’m going to remind myself I LOVE this shit, and then even when it’s inconvenient, I’m going to keep doing it. I’m going to remember how much I love the feeling of accomplishment. I’m going to remember everyone faces struggle and hardship in their lives, and when we can choose which hard things we want to engage with — the difficulty that pushes us the right amount and makes us better — we should do it, boldly. That’s the person I want to be. I want to keep it up. I want to pay the dues for my freedom, not because I will always feel like paying them in every moment and scenario, but because my life without this freedom is so much worse.
I am grateful for my body. I am grateful for my mind. I am grateful for my health. I am grateful for the gym, dedicated training, powerlifting, movement, and strength. I am grateful for food. I am grateful I can have FUN with all this. That’s what I’m going to try to start doing, more and more and more. (Because it’s not just an aggravating, untenable, massive chore, even when I don’t feel like following through in the moment. My fitness journey is one of the best additions and changes to my life, and I’m so happy it’s here.)
Even when it temporarily isn’t very fun — I want to commit and promise to keep doing it anyway, because I will forever be grateful to myself that I did. Because I cannot afford to give up the transformation, and I love myself and where this has taken me in the past and present, too much to let it go.
So to myself, and to you too, if this is useful for you: remember who you are. Remember where you came from. Remember what got you here. Keep going.
P.S. happy 4th of July, and celebration for our country, history and present, vision, great sacrifice, and freedom. ❤️🇺🇸💙
