FIT FOR THE KINGDOM

By: Celeste Carr

Hey ladies! It’s March and you may be feeling as if your momentum is plummeting for the New Year’s resolution you made concerning your fitness and nutrition. Or perhaps, you are taking the first step towards pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Well, I understand what you are experiencing. When I was in middle school, I was crazy about working out. In fact, I was into personal development before I ever knew it was such a thing. I was a part of an after-school program that taught me the value of eating right and being physically fit. So, I implemented what I learned and came up with a strategy to do some simple yet effective exercises. My success was short lived though because I was listening to the naysayers around. They were saying, “Who do you think you are?” and “You think you’re better than me?” I listened to them and eventually, what they said took root in my heart.

Fast forward years later, I picked up stomach fat in college, and I didn’t care. Some years past, I got married and gave birth to my daughter. It wasn’t until October of last year that I was fed up with my excuses and reasons for not working out and eating healthy. Since then, I have been working out and eating healthy. Now, I am sure you are wondering how I arrived at this point. Here’s how:

Know Your Why

You must know why you desire to eat healthy and workout consistently. Keeping your why in front of you helps you to endure and keep going when you feel like giving up. My number one reason was because I wanted to feel sexy and confident again. Most of the times, I felt self-conscious about my body. To be totally transparent and honest, last year, my marriage had seen some challenging times. Amongst other issues, my husband had grown to be less attracted to me because I was starting to let myself go. I knew I needed to buckle down, stop making excuses, and execute a strategy to work out on a consistent basis. Last October, God blessed me with a new job and the building has a gym in the basement, so I really had no excuse to start exercising. My why was at the forefront of my mind and that kept me going when I didn’t feel like working out. As a reminder, you can also write down your why on a piece of paper and revisit it when you need to.

Get a Workout Buddy or an Accountability partner

Having a workout buddy or accountability partner was a true game changer for me. Before, I would often let myself off the hook. I always planned to go but when it came down to it, I would creatively find reasons not to go to the gym. A high school classmate also worked at my new job. I knew she took her fitness regimen seriously, so I asked her if she wanted us to be accountability partners. We check on each other every day to talk about our workout activities.

Track Your Healthy Habits

This is super important to me. Tracking my healthy habits has been awesome. It not only allowed me to see my results over a period, but it gave me extra momentum to keep pursuing my fitness journey. I have an app on my cell phone called Virgin Pulse. This app works in conjunction with my fitness tracker and tracks my daily steps, my sleep patterns, and three healthy habits of my choice, and so much more. There are many tracking fitness apps that you can use.

Believe in Yourself

Your belief and confidence go a long way. I believed in the woman I knew I could be and was destined to be. I began to honor my commitment to myself, to see my vision and goal through to the end. I am still a work-in-progress yet every day I set out to exercise and eat right. Yes, I put my best foot forward.

I am not at the place in my fitness/nutrition goals that I desire to be, but I have certainly come a long way. I am not a fitness guru or expert, but I am a woman who understands and values my appearance inside and out. If I can do it, certainly you can too. I believe in you. You got this.