Renovation Commencing

I teach an online course called Not Your Average Fitness Course.

It’s not average because it’s not a workout program. I don’t give out specific fitness routines.

I don’t kick anyone’s ass in the exercising department.

What I do is teach women how to make exercise a habit. How to find things they enjoy doing. How they can make exercise a part of their routine even with jobs and kids and the demands of life.

And how to make mindset shifts.

Because exercise isn’t a weight loss thing.

Sure, it might be a part of someone’s weight loss plan.

It’s a great way to help maintain weight loss.

But exercise is a health thing.

For me it’s about modeling healthy habits for my kids and being able to keep up with my kids and managing depression and doing everything I can to maintain my quality of life for as long as I can.

I exercise every day. It is a non-negotiable.

In addition to all the health benefits of exercise, it helps me be more disciplined and efficient in other areas of my life.

While I am really good at helping people figure out how to make exercise a habit, I have gained at least 20 pounds in the last year.

AT LEAST.

Probably more.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m pretty comfortable with my body.

I am not shredded (well, I think I probably am under this layer of insulation I have developed).

I still wear a bikini.

Here I am last summer not shredded and in a bikini.

I’m heavier now than I was last summer and I’m not happy about it.

Menopause is part of the problem.

Menopause is a pain in my ass.

I just cannot eat what I want to eat and I can’t eat the way I did even a couple years ago.

I just can’t.

I mean, I can.

But not if I don’t want to keep packing on the pounds.

And I don’t want to keep packing on the pounds.

Not really because I’m embarrassed by how I look, but because it just doesn’t feel good.

And while I will wear a bikini at any weight and feel fine, I don’t love what my body looks like.

I don’t!

You can love and appreciate your body and also not love how it looks.

We do this with our houses, right?

My house right now needs quite a bit of work.

It needs paint just about everywhere. It needs new siding and a new roof and a new chimney and a long list of other stuff.

But I still love my house.

I LOVE IT!

There’s a ton of stuff I want to change about it, but I still love it so much.

I look forward to renovating when it’s in the budget.

I feel the same way about my body.

I love and appreciate my body, but I want to change it.

I don’t feel as good physically as I would if I lost weight.

And I really just want my body to look different than it does now.

Caring about what your body looks like and being comfortable in your skin are not mutually exclusive things.

If I want to change what my body looks like, I have to start with changing how and what I eat.

I think a lot of women feel like once they hit a certain age it’s just impossible to lose weight.

It’s not.

Unless you aren’t willing to make any changes at all.

Doing the same things you are doing now and expecting different results is just silly.

I don’t want to gain any more weight.

I want to change fat into muscle.

To be honest, I have always had a secret goal to compete in a bodybuilding/bikini competition.

I just want to see how I could transform my body.

And I think it would be pretty kick ass to do that in my fifties.

But for now I’m going to focus on smaller, manageable changes.

And as much as I don’t want to acknowledge it, if I don’t want to find myself another 20 pounds heavier next year, I have to accept that my post menopausal body just can’t eat the same way the premenopausal one did.

So that’s where I’m starting.

I’m going to share the journey with you, in case you are trying to make some changes and could use a reminder that you aren’t alone.

Here’s where I’m starting from 🙂

Let the transformation begin!