Category: Motivation

I used to read fitness magazines all the time in my twenties and thirties. I was convinced they held all of life’s secrets for getting fit, getting thin, and feeling good about myself, once and for all. I especially loved the “Before & After” stories. They would generally show two photos of a reader, one before massive weight loss and another afterwards. More often than not, the “before” picture showed someone looking frumpy and unhappy in ill-fitting clothing. The “after” shot showed them smiling, all done up, in the world’s tightest outfits. This photographic evidence was meant (I hope) to encourage readers to believe that no matter where they were starting, they could get where they wanted to go, and the companion one-page story explained how the person did it (so much lean protein, so much working out, so very little pasta, bread, and dessert).

I don’t diminish the successes of these women, and I hope they still feel strong and powerful all these years later, regardless of what their bodies look like now. I learned a thing or two from those stories, and I did come to believe that you can start from anywhere, although my own journey has proved that more than any magazine article could.  

My concern, and it took me years of reading those magazines and stories to realize it, is that every before is also an after. And, of course, every after is also a before. No one just ended up at the Before part with no context, and no one had an amazing After, and that was the end of the story, goodnight and goodbye.

There’s more to every picture than what you see (remember this always when looking at social media), and there is more than one way to think about a photo, even when you know the whole story. Look at any picture of yourself from any moment in time: there was joy and pain in there somewhere, and you can choose which one stands out to you.

I don’t know if those magazines still do Before & After pieces as I don’t pick them up anymore, but I do see a lot of stuff on social media showing people before and after they did whatever plan, program, or 6 easy steps the original poster is promoting. Just like their analog predecessors, these photos show a moment in time. But that Before photo is an After photo of whatever got that person there. And that After moment, whether the person is aware of it or not, is Before something else. Before a job change, before a family transformation, before a financial shift, before a move, before a new season of life, before an injury or illness, before a disruption of some sort. Will the thing the OP is pushing get them through that shake up? I hope so, but experience tells me that it won’t.

Learning to trust yourself and your body to guide you through disruptions is tough. It means letting go of all those voices in your head that are telling you what you “should” be doing to get to and maintain the body that can do all the things you need and want it to. It’s easy enough to follow someone else’s plan, but can you make your own and adapt it no matter what comes down the pike? If the answer is anything other than, “Hell, yes!” let’s talk.

Lines from and references to movies from the 70s and 80s are practically a second language for me. Most of the time, people know what I am talking about, especially when I say, “Rocky training in Siberia.” If you have seen one Rocky movie, you have seen a fabulous “getting in shape” montage, and Rocky IV really is the best of the breed.  Watch for yourself, then read on.

Since Texas is currently hellfire hot, no matter what time of day you get out the door to walk or run or do yard work or tennis or whatever, it is like an oven, which I would argue is sub-optimal. Thus, extreme conditions have been on my mind a lot as a reminder that, “Hey! If you can do it in this heat, imagine how great it will feel when the weather is nice!” Also, it is nice to think about places that are not hellfire hot all the time, even if they are Siberia.

When things you cannot control go haywire, it’s great to remember that Rocky training in sub-optimal conditions gave him an advantage – it is precisely why he won. Even beyond the cold and snow, he is training with precious little boxing-specific equipment. By design, the Soviets have cleverly sent him off to an unheated cabin, knowing that Drago, his opponent, is working out in a fancy gym with the finest gizmos 1982 had to offer. How could Rocky possibly win against all that? Oh, but American ingenuity is not to be underestimated! Rocky fells trees! He chops wood! He piles rocks on a cart! He helps right an overturned sleigh! And… he beats Drago, the entire USSR, and all doubts anyone had that he was too old or too soft to still kick ass.

Rocky IV is surely a jingoistic piece of weirdness straight out of Reagan’s America, and yet the idea that someone can get amazingly strong and powerful with so little is oddly appealing.

Just to clarify, I do not recommend pulling your brother-in-law on a sled in the snow (unless you want to). When conditions are rough, not just weather, but job, family, or whatever, think about Rocky and do something. Get moving in some way, even if it means going shorter and slower than you would like. Waiting for the perfect conditions or for the day you have all the best gear is a stalling tactic. Just go. Just move. The Soviets aren’t going to give you perfect conditions and neither is anyone else. You have to decide you have the conditions you have and get going anyway.

If your conditions seem insurmountable, let’s talk! You can sign up for a free consultation here.

There are few things more soul-sucking in this world than the hotel fitness room. Depending on where you are in your travels, you may find this particular amenity is no more than a dimly lit closet with a squeaky treadmill and a vague smell of mold. Or, in the case of one hotel in Waco, an overwhelmingly strong smell of mold indicative of what I could only imagine was a solid layer of black fuzz beneath the wallpaper. Ew.

Some hotel fitness rooms, however, have equipment you could only dream of having in your own home: items neatly organized, walls brightly colored, and windows looking out over the pool or some other lovely view. Yet I imagine few people think, “I can’t wait to go to the hotel fitness room!”

Whether your travels are for business or pleasure, you might dutifully pack your workout clothes, assuring yourself with the best of intentions that you will log some miles on the treadmill or the elliptical. Or the ancient bike that doesn’t exactly add resistance smoothly. Why is it so hard to get it done once you arrive?

The soul-sucking nature of the hotel fitness room is only part of the problem. You can blame it all you want, but the truth is a little closer to home.

Figuring out why you intend to workout when you travel is the key. Which of these reasons sound familiar?

I am going to workout because I know I am going to eat and drink a lot more than usual.

Great plan! You intend to punish yourself for enjoying yourself. Got it. If you’re traveling for pleasure, you’re probably not interested in doing anything other than enjoying yourself. If you’re traveling for work, there’s a good chance you already feel punished enough by the boring meetings, mandatory fun, and the selection of mediocre sandwiches at lunch. So, you talk yourself out of the workout, then feel guilty for enjoying yourself.

I will be out of my routine, so this is the perfect time to start working out.

Good thinking! You are also totally going to visit more art museums, read more, look at your phone less, smell the roses, and wash your sheets more regularly because if Housekeeping can do it, why can’t you? When you return home, there’s your routine, waiting for you. It does not include more art museums, does it? Why would it suddenly include more working out?

I have an upcoming race, wedding, class reunion, etc. and I absolutely have to stay on my plan or the world will collapse around me.

It’s practically science that the world will collapse if you don’t keep a tight grip on it, right? See the above point. You are out of your routine. Maybe you have an itinerary packed with have-to-dos, like meetings with the boss and dinners with the client. Maybe your family has planned 27 hours a day of exciting togetherness. Maybe staying out way later than normal means sleeping in. You know what’s at home waiting for you? Your pets, the mail, and also, your routine.  

Ok, so am I saying to just leave your workout clothes at home and go all in on multiple trips to the buffet and closing the bar down every night? Well, if that’s what sings to your heart while traveling, go for it. What if, instead of the above reasons, you sought out reasons that involved making your trip more enjoyable? What if, instead of soul-sucking hour-long journeys to nowhere on the hotel elliptical , you tried this? (And no, that weird video of the drone perspective of a trail in Colorado is not a journey to anywhere)

• Set an intention to move to keep your body feeling good. No one likes sitting in front of Power Points all day. Your low back hurts, your hips are tight. Maybe you take the steps instead of the elevator some of the time. Maybe you take a walk around the building during 15-minute breaks. If your travels include walking the neighborhood, visiting museums, or dancing at a wedding, that counts! Who says you need to do more than that?
• Acknowledge that the hotel fitness room sucks, but that a little time on the treadmill clears your head. It makes you less likely to lash out at Uncle Dan when he talks politics. It makes you less likely to get distracted by fantasies of throttling the new COO who uses terms like silo as a verb. It increases the chance that you can escape into a podcast or playlist to get out of your own head for a minute. Focus on how you will feel afterwards, and you will increase your chances of starting.
• Tell that voice in your head that’s going on about what a failure you are for not doing more while traveling to zip it. Actually, don’t tell it to zip it, because that’s only going to make it mad. It will come back louder next time (just like Uncle Dan). Say, “I can understand your concern. I am confident I can get back to it when I return from traveling.” Then move on to enjoying your trip. You don’t need to tell anyone you just had a conversation with yourself unless you want to.
• Give yourself permission not to do any of it. Don’t even pack the running shoes. They take up a lot of space! If you hear yourself say, “I won’t even have time, but I really should…” just stop. Don’t pack the shoes. It’s like buying a bunch of kale that you hate but think you really should eat or paying an annual fee for that language app you’ve never used because you really should learn Spanish. Should is the enemy of fun and doesn’t need to take up space in your bag.

In short, let your travels be your travels. If movement fits into the agenda, great! If it doesn’t, you will be home soon enough. Trust yourself to know what you need and how much time you have for it, and go from there.

I was not, by nature, an athletically inclined kid. I was instead the kid who got unreasonably jazzed about the summer reading list to the point that I would finish all the assigned books by the end of June, thereby being incapable of thoughtfully discussing the books come the beginning of September. That put me on par with all the kids who had only read the first 3 chapters. It was a great disguise for looking normal. I could not, however, carry that disguise into gym class. For example, the balance beam was, for me, a form of torture. “Don’t look down!” my peers helpfully cheered. Then what the hell am I supposed to look at? I couldn’t make it more than a step or two, paralyzed with fear, probably crying. In the Kindergarten gymnastics show for parents, I was relegated to doing the log roll on the mat. I still rolled off unevenly. My gym teachers, they had precious little patience for developing my obvious potential.

Equally terrifying for me was anything that required upper body strength and a bar. Presidential Physical Fitness Test? No, thanks. “Just do one pull-up!” my peers helpfully cheered. How? I couldn’t even engage whatever body parts that was supposed to require. No amount of success on the sit-and-reach could make up for the big 0 in the pull-up category. And that brings me to the playground horror known as the monkey bars. While all the other kids could go back and forth on the hot metal rungs, upside down, one-handed, gliding across like, well, monkeys, I could barely make it more than a few rungs. Sweaty palms and lack of faith in my ability to let go to grab the next one without plummeting to the ground, I held up the whole line of kids waiting to go. I would start, and then, as predicted, I would plummet to the ground. The last time I tried, in third grade, I sprained my ankle. And so, I vowed never to set foot (hand?) on that particular piece of equipment ever again. And I didn’t. I had precious little patience for developing my own obvious potential.

Fast forward thirty years or so, and there I was at the park with my kids. Playgrounds had become plastic and colorful, filled with bridges and tunnels and all sorts of other exciting features that were, more often than not, under a tree. Progress! And yet, there stood the monkey bars, having retained their importance in childhood development along with the slide and the swings. The big difference now? I was tall enough that falling to the ground was about a 3” affair. And yet? I still couldn’t do it. I could not talk myself into doing more than just hanging on the first rung.

Both my kids could do it, back and forth, hanging upside down, one-handed, gliding across like monkeys. Why couldn’t I? Finally, after months of thinking about it, I vowed to try. I vowed to get over my stupid fear of the stupid monkey bars. I hung, I let go with one hand, and I successfully made it to the next rung. And then I dropped, because no one told me when I was 8 that a wedding ring hurts on the monkey bars. Having learned this important lesson, I kept trying. Within a surprisingly short amount of time, I made it all the way across. I did that many times! And then, I even did it a couple of times on the bigger set that WAS out in the hot sun. And now? I don’t fear the monkey bars anymore. This isn’t a story about me becoming the top elite monkey bars athlete of Texas. I don’t compete in monkey bars relays, and now that my kids are older, I don’t even go to the playground anymore.

What I do know is that all of us carry around stories about what happened in the past, and we let those stories dictate the now. If you couldn’t do it before, who says you can’t do it today? If you were limited in skill before, who says you can’t work on that now? The past is firmly in the past. Leave it. Acknowledge your potential, even if it isn’t obvious, and take the time to develop it. See what you are capable of today. I bet you will surprise yourself.