How to Change Your Approach With Your Fitness Routine

In my last blog, I talked about my vision for the fitness industry and how I think it needs to change to serve people better. (Click here for the blog.) One of my readers asked a couple of questions I would like to address now.

The questions were:

• “How do we start convincing clients/friends/family that the all-or-nothing approach isn’t a great long-term plan for getting in shape?”
• “How to we tackle letting go of that fitness model physique and coach clients to love their body now, not later?”

These are great questions and they open up an endless discussion. It isn’t possible to answer them in one short article, but I promise that every single blog I write will be a part of the answer.

First, I don’t believe we should convince anyone about anything. In the past, I tried to do that, but all I got was resistance. People resist change; they’re afraid to let go of their ideas, what they know, or what they feel is important and right for them at the moment.

I tried to fit society’s expectations in the past, too. I resisted not only my body but my whole being. I trained countless hours to look better. I deprived my body and tried every popular diet. I remember the times when I thought that losing weight would resolve all the issues in my life. In my mind, the only thing that held me back was my weight. I thought when I “look good,” I’ll have all I want in my life. Even, when someone was trying to convince me that the way I looked was just fine, I didn’t believe them, or I didn’t hear them, or I disregarded their opinion because I thought they were just being polite.

While I don’t think convincing works, I do believe influencing and guiding does. That’s why I share my story. I know there are a lot more women and men out there who are dealing with the same challenges, who aren’t feeling good enough and/or don’t feel worthy unless society accepts them.

The very first time I became aware of how much I hated myself and my body, it shocked me. I lived most of my life with this hate and believed there was something wrong with me without realizing it. These beliefs came with a lot of suffering. In that moment when I became conscious of these negatives, I promised myself I wouldn’t live my life feeling this way for another moment. I thought to myself, “What a waste of a life! How could I resist the body that carries me through my life? What an amazing gift it is, and I should be nothing but grateful for it, especially after all the abuse I put myself through — the workouts, the self-hatred, the diets, the self-sabotage.” The list goes on...

The first step to come out of my struggle was realizing all this. I woke up to the reality of the value of this life. I realized how my life was handed to me and it couldn’t go on without recognizing it was a wonderful gift. I woke up and knew my body and my life were special and this moment was the only one I was sure of. And in this moment, I could be nothing else but grateful for my heart beating, for taking this breath, and for being alive.

When I looked at life through this filter, everything started to shift — the workouts, what I ate, how I looked at myself, how I treated myself and how I allowed others to treat me. My main focus became simple: I wanted to be good to myself.

However, I didn’t know what I needed, what my body needed. I was out of touch with myself and my feelings because I never paid attention to them before. I paid much more attention to what others expected from me. This brought lot of changes into my life, but there was a lot more to explore.

It took me some self-studying, soul searching, healing, time, patience, and trust to be where I am today: being free, at peace with my body, and with who I am.

When we follow the trends, we’re trying to fit a picture of what society expects from us. We can only be pulled into this cycle when we’re out of touch with ourselves, our feelings, and our needs, and we look for validation and approval from our environment. When we value others’ acceptance and validation more than holding onto our own truths, we give our power away.

Becoming our true authentic selves is scary, vulnerable but also self-empowering. I believe the first step to this shift is by truly connecting to what a miracle it is to be alive and what a waste of time it is to try to fit into a picture that wasn’t meant for us. It causes us so much suffering. We are unique human beings, and it’s time to learn to embrace our uniqueness; our diversity is beautiful, and when we think so too, it radiates from within us.

If you think about your life as a precious gift, how would it change the way you approach your fitness? What’s your intention? When you look at your body as a miracle, how would you take care of it, how would you nourish it, how would you treat it? Would it change your approach when you need to tackle challenges with your diet, training program, or lifestyle?

Close your eyes, feel your way into it and consciously decide how you intend to proceed from this moment.

As I said, there’s so much more to this.

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