The Choice is Yours

The choice is yours.  It really is.  I started back to college to pursue my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in Marketing in May.  As I was watching one of the required videos there was a quote that caught my attention.

It seemed very relevant to the life that we are now living.   It was almost eerie in a sense. This quote spoke volumes to me. In the last several months there has been so much negativity in the media and social media it can become really hard to not just fall into believing what we are being fed.  Once we start believing what we hear or read and not try to look beyond it we start to react or even worse we don’t react which can be just as bad or worse.

Knowing when to React

Initially, when the pandemic hit, I spent my days watching the news.  Looking for any glimmer of hope that this would be ending soon.  You see the industry in which I work was one of the first to take a hit by the pandemic.  No gatherings meant no concerts.  It did not take us or our colleagues long to see that this was not going to end in 2 weeks or even two months for that matter.  Once the reality set in we knew we had to go into survival mode.  We knew if we just sat back and waited failure would be imminent.   This is only one of the circumstances that the pandemic has presented.  As for our company, our entire 2020 season has been canceled.  There was a short attempt to get back to it, but that fell to the continued rising of the cases.  As to the reaction, we applied for any and all assistance offered, while some were successful, not all were.  The ability to return to school was one of the opportunities I was fortunate enough to be able to find success in. Since we were not going to be working for a while, this could be a beneficial distraction.  Furthermore, if the stage remains dark for more than a year, a college degree may be beneficial.

Dont let the Negativity Define you

Sadly, this pandemic has taken so much from so many people.  While we have lost family members, friends, and possibly even careers how we react from here will truly define how we will get past this in the future.  We can choose to let all of the negativity define who we are or we can find whatever it takes to pull ourselves out of the tidal wave that it is dragging us into.  

The Challenges of 2020 Come in Many Forms

I have heard many people refer to the difficult side effect of Covid-19.  People that have not even contracted the illness are suffering from this side effect. That would be the weight gain.  This side effect is because of how many have chosen to handle the new situations they are in because of how life has changed from the pandemic. It’s difficult to not let ourselves fall into the trap of emotional eating during difficult times.  As mentioned before,  when my mother passed away I felt it was my “right” to eat whatever I wanted.  Afterall I was grieving a loss of a lifetime.  Then add that the last thing I wanted to do was workout.  Had I continued this destructive path; I would have lost multiple years’ worth of efforts.  Fortunately, I recognized the path I was headed down was not healthy nor was it helping me in any way.  This enabled me to prevent myself from falling into the same trap 22 months later. When we lost my father I made the statement to my husband that I was not going to use this tragedy as an excuse to let my own health go.  

Lessons Learned

Losing my parents prepared me for dealing with the challenges that we are seeing as a result of this pandemic.  I learned that we cannot give up working for what we want or need.  The course we take may have to change from what we envisioned it to be, or from what we were used to.  We did not get to choose to go through these challenges, but we do get to choose how we handle them.

Don’t Give Up What You Can Still Control

If we accept that it is ok to eat poorly because we are grieving our losses, or we accept that we cannot work out because the gyms are closed, then we are giving up one of the things we can still have control over.  

Don’t Let Excuses Hold you Back

I have chosen to continue to work towards my fitness goals.  I have put more effort into my fitness and decided that working out is not only healthy for my body, but it is necessary for my mind.  The tools for a successful fitness journey are in our reach should we choose to accept them.  I found this workout program one year after my father passed away. There are so many options that this has been referred to as the Netflix of fitness.  I have found this to work so well for me because I was able to get started for less than the cost of a gym membership.  I don’t have to leave my home, which saves me at a minimum an hour a day, therefore I am able to be consistent in my routine.  Add to that I don’t have to worry about unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus or other germs.  Add all of those things together and that means I am running out of excuses.  Now that I have created the habit and seen the benefits, the excuses are becoming fewer and farther between.  

Choose to be Healthier

This has been one of the most beneficial changes I have made in my life.  Making the choice to be healthy despite not being in control of so many other things. If you are ready to make the choice to be healthy and would like a mentor to help you find what program would best suit your needs and goals, I would love to help.  The hardest part is making the commitment to start then following through.  Once you get into the routine and see the benefits, it becomes easier to keep pushing yourself to stronger and healthier you. 

Join a Challenge Group

 I have found that working together with others that have similar goals has increased my accountability. I join a new challenge group monthly, the others hold me accountable and push me to keep working towards my goals. Our next challenge starts on August 10th, we will be doing a brand new program that was just released. So, what are you waiting for?  Let’s work together to find a program that will help you reach your goals.