Walk it off
Happy Motivation Monday!
One tiny bit of my coaching practice that I love is helping clients dig deep to find what motivates them. I am very challenge oriented and love to have a set goal that is broken down into obtainable mini steps. Of course, it also helps when you have a partner along for the journey!
Every four weeks, I will be issuing a motivation challenge. At the end of the four weeks, I will recap the challenge, what I did, my progress, and share the progress of those who join in the challenge with me.
My first challenge is a bit personal, and when I tell you what it is, it may shock you. No, not shock you in a bad way, but make you wonder WHY this is personal.
My motivation challenge for the next 30 days is to walk.
For this first week, I will walk at least 5 km every morning and 2 km at night. Next week, I will walk 6 km in the morning and 3 km at night. The following week, 8 km and 5 km, and the final week, 10 km and 8km.
Every morning and night? Shouldn’t I start smaller? Well, my four-legged fur baby has to potty anyway. If we’re outside, we might as well walk! This tiny and extremely achievable challenge is just step one towards my larger goal, which is reclaiming my health.
In June of 2015, I had an emotionally and physically draining miscarriage. Physical because my body didn’t deal with it well, emotional because, well, I was accused of having an abortion and threatened with jail time in a locked room (there’s always a story as an expat).
I dealt with it well and I poured my frustration into my training. I started to work out at an elite fitness center with a personal trainer and saw strong results very quickly. Being 6'0" with a good frame, I am lucky that I can build muscle and tone quickly. Training at this center taught me just how far I can push my training and I was hooked.
And then I went to the states to visit my parents for 6 weeks, took a massive road trip, came back to India, had surgery, went through IVF, and once again, had a very early term miscarriage.
This year, I taxed my body to new levels. This time, the miscarriage was extremely difficult not only from having undergone the IVF procedure, not only because it happened while I was alone and my husband was out of country for work, but the side effects. You are so pumped full of hormones that your body doesn’t register the loss right away, or even for a while.
During the IVF procedure, my body was having a hard time dealing with the medications. I had an 18 day migraine, I threw up for two weeks straight, and because of my anemia, my body looked like a bruised Dalmatian from all the shots and blood draws.
I told myself that after I lost this pregnancy, I could have one week and then it was back to the gym. My body found that hilarious. I still had raw nerves in my abdomen from my May surgery, I was physically exhausted, my hormones were all over the place and I couldn’t get leveled out, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think, I didn’t want to eat but I was also hungry all the time, I couldn’t walk without getting tired — I couldn’t even talk without getting out of breath, and then I stepped on the scale.
Well, actually, my husband stepped on the scale and I laughed. Then I stepped on and my jaw hit the floor. I immediately tried to do a hard HIIT workout like I was doing last year. When the room started spinning, I realized that I had to start slowly.
I signed up for yoga. I felt things popping and pulling that had never popped or pulled and old pops and pulls were popping and pulling more. I cried on the yoga mat a few times. I researched and realized just how hard the IVF procedure can be on your body, but I had to keep pushing with my yoga.
I’ve noticed immense progress in my asanas and I am diligent about practicing. I even had a Eureka moment in Sri Lanka when I was running my husband through Surya Namaskar and I hit a very fluid transition. However, I still have issues with getting light-headed, out of breath, or exhausted easily when I try to push for cardio.
My motivation for this month is to walk it off. My motivation is to beat the challenges of this year and no longer let them challenge me physically. My motivation is to restart my HIIT training next month and to feel that energetic bubble coursing through my body again from a good workout.
Are you struggling this year? Did you have something stop you in your tracks and steal a bit of your physical thunder?
Let’s push those grey clouds away this month. I put my goal above and I will be chatting about my progress on Twitter (@girlvscity). You can also sign up for my Motivation Mania email newsletter. I will send an email Monday through Friday to motivate you for my monthly challenges. Some months will be physical challenges, some will be focused on rediscovering creativity, some months will be mentally stimulating.
If you want to live every day with purpose and rediscover exactly what you’re made of with me, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/cqIQRj
What is your challenge this month? Comment below, I would love to know how you want to live your life with purpose and design the life you love!
Originally published at GirlVsCity.
