I’m in fact now living a healthy LIFESTYLE.  There is a big and important difference in those two phrases to me.

Over the holiday this past week (Happy Birthday America!!) I met up with some friends to watch the fireworks.  One of my friends who I had not see in a while commented that after seeing some of my social media posts he could tell I was on a health kick now.  For some reason that statement really stuck with me.  I have been thinking about it ever since and the more I do, the more it bothers me.  It doesn’t bother me that he pointed it out or made mention of it, but I think it bothered me because being on a health kick seems so temporary and I have really made up my mind (more than I may have even realized) to make this a permanent way of life.

Of course, he could not have know that, and was not at all trying to be offensive but I realized after he said it how fiercely protective I am of my new lifestyle.  There was something about the way he said it that seem like I would be giving up on it eventually and I think that’s why I was bothered.  Although I walked away from that conversation a little irked, I also took away from it a really strong sense of satisfaction that I had mentally made such a commitment to myself and my health!

There have definitely been other points in my life I told myself I was going to get in shape and finally get the body I really wanted but those apparently were actual health kicks because they never lasted all that long.  This time it feels completely different and I am so thankful!!  I can’t exactly tell you what the difference between this time and the other times is but I think it has to do with me changing both my diet and and workout routine up instead of just one or the other.

When I started on this journey at the beginning of the year I could not have imagined what a difference it was going to make in soooo many parts of my life.  I was hoping to shed a couple extra pounds I had put on and maybe increase my energy levels but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how many things would improve for me just seven short months later.  And what’s even crazier is it does not at all feel like a chore to me or something I have to make time for, but rather it is something I look forward to now and want to make time for.  I wake up every day excited to be on this journey and even more excited about where it will take me next.

A great example of this is that I have signed up for my first actual 5k race due to take place this Saturday! Y’all, I haven’t run an actual race in years!! It has honestly probably been since high school when I ran cross country that I ran a straight 5ker.  I wouldn’t have even attempted it up until now but I am feeling so healthy and have been slowly getting my stamina back I thought why not do it!?  I am ultra-competitive (probably too much so!) so running in an actual event is so exciting for me and something again I haven’t felt fit enough to do it years!  I know I won’t even be close to the fastest person out there this weekend but this is really about doing it for myself and competing against myself.  I am eager to make this the first of many races I sign up for and complete and hopefully I will only continue to get stronger and faster!

This new, healthier lifestyle I am living has been the best gift I could have ever given myself.  It has improved my physical health, my mental health, increased my self-confidence by a boat load and even just made waking up each day a little more exciting because I have something I am working hard at and seeing results on a daily basis with.  I can look at myself in the mirror now and genuinely feel proud of the person looking back at me. I am still and will probably always be a work in progress but I am having so much fun putting in the work I honestly am happy there is no end to this journey.

Oh and pics of the 5k this weekend to come!!

 

xoxoxo,

Beth