I’m not like those others fitness challenge girls. You know the ones…they’re perfectly fit with excellent physiques, sculpted everything. I’m not committed to completely clean eating. I don’t show my six-pack abs at the gym when working out (mainly because I don’t have them to show). I don’t post pictures on Instagram of my sleek, amazing yoga poses (because I cannot get into sleek, amazing yoga poses). I’m not one of those fabulous girls. Yet.
I’ve wanted to be one of those girls. Let’s be honest. If your Fitness Fairy Godmother could wave a wand and make you magically and instantly fit, tight and toned, you’d certainly let her, right? Me too! I know these girls we see on YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook work their butts off (literally!) to achieve this level of fitness and strength.
And that’s the scary part for me. It takes WORK and lots of it. It’s exhausting and overwhelming to even consider much less do. Simply beginning or even knowing how to, is a challenge in and of itself.
If you’re like me and battle a chronic illness that causes all sorts of issues that throw a wrench in your fitness plans, it’s an even bigger struggle. Fatigue, pain, medication side effects, treatment days…are all things that interfere with my aspirations to strengthen and tone. And I hate it.
But I finally decided just yesterday that I’m going to get serious about this getting in shape thing. I know that it’s hard–so hard–to go to the gym or even take a long walk. It’s even harder when you’re brutally tired or depressed (if that’s something you struggle with). But I also know that those days I do manage to engage in some physical activity, I never regret it. I decided that I would do my best for 30 days to do 30 minutes daily of meaningful exercise. That’s not to say that every single day I must darken the doorstep at the gym. It doesn’t mean I have to run five miles for it to count, which is great since I can’t run five miles. (Sometimes leaving the house with Crohn’s disease simply isn’t going to happen.) But it does mean that I have to do something of value: jump on the trampoline, shoot some hoops with my son, do a relaxing online yoga or Pilates routine with my daughter, or do short bursts of exercise in ten-minute segments. Whatever I can manage on a given day, that’s what I’m going to do.
I plan to do it each day for 30 straight days. I want to challenge myself of course and see what I can accomplish and I want to see how I feel. In conjunction with this plan, I’m going to experiment with my diet as well. The diet of a Crohn’s person is very complicated and what I can tolerate one day may cause me intense pain and significant issues the next. Really, every time I put food in my mouth, it’s somewhat of an experiment to see what will happen. But I’m going to make great efforts to eat “clean” and eliminate as much processed food as possible. I’m 75% convinced that preservatives and unnatural “stuff” in our foods aggravate the Crohn’s.
If you do something daily for three weeks, it becomes a habit.
I was once told that and I think it’s true, so if I commit to 30 days of fitness, hopefully it will become a habit and I will naturally want to do this and it’ll be part of my life routine. Every single day for 30 days might seem excessive. Even diets have cheat days. But I know me and if I allow myself a built-in day off, I’ll take two and two may all too easily lead to four and so on. If I’m far too exhausted or too sick and 30 minutes of meaningful exercise is just outside the realm of possibility on a given day, I’m not going to internally beat myself up about it. The days I can manage the exercise will far outweigh the odd day off and it’s the progress I need to concentrate on. For now, there is no set rest day. It will be implemented on a strict as-needed basis. And if all I can manage is lifting some light hand weights while I sit on the couch, hey–it’s still exercise and doing something good for my body.
Don’t get me wrong, I make no excuses, but for anyone with a health struggle who may be reading this, I don’t want them to find discouragement or unrealistic goals here. I want them to feel quite the opposite: encouraged! I want you to know that if, out of 30 days, you can only manage to go for a walk 7 of those days, that’s 7 days–an entire week–that you challenged your body. Pat yourself on the back and start again. We all have specific needs and specific abilities and we should celebrate and stretch them as we are able and each of us has a different ability. Not all of us can have 6-pack abs and not all of us want them, and there’s nothing wrong with either!
I’d love for you to join my challenge and if you choose to, comment with some goals you’re setting for yourself whether it’s simply drinking more water each day, eliminating something unhealthy from your diet, or exercising every day. Do something healthy for yourself every day for 30 days and let’s see what good things happen!
