A year ago this weekend I showed up to the virtual Canyonlands Half Marathon as best dressed…. Well, in my opinion, best dressed. Even in the worst of situations, I do try to be the most energetic, funniest person around. I wore my rainbow socks, bright red running skirt, a “longest beer run ever” shirt and St. Patrick’s day themed headband (not in the photo as I ran). I ran 13.1 miles in the Moab area with others who, like myself, were in denial that the world was shutting down. Who the heck knew that was literally about to be… the longest beer run EVER!
Just a few days later, on March 17th I wore the exact same outfit to teach my 90 minute spin class at the gym dressed as St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun. Upon arrival, I was informed I’d need to sanitize the bikes/room and yoga studio, and the gym was closing. Caution tape was put up and by noon that day we all excited that particular gym. A year later – I have yet to return to that full gym and they have not resumed group fitness classes. What we thought was a two week closure has officially reached 365 days! (But, we are celebrating those 365 days of digital discipline, no doubt).
What you have to know about me is the pre-covid days, I taught 24 group fitness classes a week, did private sessions, and coached just a handful of people on the internet. Classes were my pride and joy. Creating choreography and music lists were my biggest hobbies; and seeing participants in my class thrive with the music/choreography together brought energy to my day like no other.
The first two weeks after the closures were extremely depressing to me. I stayed home pretty much from March 17 until the first part of April. I didn’t see another person, other than my husband for 6 weeks!!! I felt depressed at some moments, a little bit anxious at other moments, and extremely over ambitious at most moments of my day. The “overly ambitious” moments really became a coverup about how I really felt about the world and the new season of “digital days.” Before I knew it, I was installing a barre into my workout room (don’t confuse barre with bar – we installed a BARRE), pulling out my spin bike, and arranging the lighting for teaching DIGITAL classes.
As you can imagine – it wasn’t long before in my overly ambitious moments, I got the ideas to start teaching digital fitness, digital nutrition, digital cooking classes. From teaching the science of macros & hormones to teaching sweaty workouts, to cooking classes, I brought as much positive energy as I could to the screen. I just felt like that is what the world needed – a little bit of positive energy, with a splash of digital discipline.
Okay, that was a really long anecdote to bring you to the point of my 365 days of losing motivation, only to find DISCIPLINE. If you made it that far through the story, you can imagine that in March/April time, I was fighting depression/anxiety, but it was totally masked by ambition. Through my super sporadic moments of ambition, I did start to find the important, key piece of my own health for the year, as well as the healthy of others: discipline.
Disciplined enough to foam roll, even when I don’t like it.
Photo by Aspire Higher Media Productions – Aspirehighermediaproductions.com
With having zero races on the agenda, the motivation to train, run, cycle, and lift was lost. Out the window, gone, none. I didn’t need or have my typical 6am wake up time to workout and then head to my classes. I didn’t have my typical run groups to chat with. Discipline found its way into my schedule, into my mind, into my agenda. And, wow, am I glad that the discipline popped in uninvited.
What I learned is that if you allow discipline to make its way into your agenda for long enough (3-4 weeks) that discipline transitions into consistency. And consistency transitions into commitments. And following through with commitment becomes victory and pride.
While I don’t have the best of answers to remain disciplined and committed to your health, I can try to give you a short list to get started:
- Welcome discipline into your home, into your agenda, into your exercise area, into your fridge and meal prep areas. Welcome discipline wherever you need it most.
- Face discipline face-first at least 5x per week. If you can follow through with the discipline to be active, eat right, hydrate well, sleep decently for at least 5 days a week, you will get 20+ days/month. That gives you 2 days a week to freestyle it, but 5x to face discipline.
- Be consistent. If you are consistent in one area one day, be equally as consistent in that area the next day. Don’t use the productivity of the prior day as an excuse to slack on that area the next day. (Example: if you exercise on Monday, come Tuesday don’t tell yourself “but I exercised yesterday, I can slack today.”) That is not discipline or consistency. Choose consistency in your exercise, your eating, and your mindset.
- Be committed. If you have learned anything in this past year, it’s that commitment to your own health and commitment to the health of others around you can and will save others. It will prevent health scares, illness, and create longevity in the lives of others.
- Take pride in yourself. Embrace and celebrate the victories. When I say take pride in yourself, I mean – value your health, your wellness, take pride in being the best healthiest version of you that you can be. Be proud of the discipline you instill in yourself.
As you follow this list, I’d LOVE to hear about your successes and how you are feeling from day 1 to day 365. Remember, the days will feel long, but darn are the years short. Make the best of each and every year. As you work on these days of discipline, be sure to post, share, tag me, and celebrate every victory along the way.