All tagged acceptance

Fitness Is a Vehicle for Connection

Fitness Is a Vehicle for Connection

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset

I've often said fitness is a vehicle: it's where many of us meet folks who share our interests, and also where many of us end up meeting ourselves.

We don't always start out this way, though, or, at least, we don't always see it.

Most clients I've coached in the last 10+ years have come to me with a goal to change their bodies in some way, but when we dig underneath, rather than hearing they really want to be a certain size or hit a certain number on a squat platform, I hear things like...

"I'd really like to feel comfortable in my own skin."
"I'd like to be able to run around with my kids without knee pain."
"I hope someday I can teach my daughter how to take care of her body in ways that feel good."
"I want to feel accomplished, like I acheived something to be proud of."

So much of this is about acceptance, about belonging, about connection, about relationship. That's what we're all really after, after all. It's easy to get lost along the way, thinking this achievement or that thing will bring it to us, without realizing it's available to us, exactly as we are right now.

That gets sticky, too, though, doesn't it?

Is This You? [[Last Call!]]

Is This You? [[Last Call!]]

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, offers, mindset

So, you’re sitting there, half-drunk smoothie at the corner of your desk, zoned out on a Thursday with the trillion things you have to do before you bring work home for the weekend running through your mind. You’re wondering why this smoothie doesn’t just taste better and why exercising feels like such a chore and why you never follow through on anything, and this ever-growing to-do list gumming up the works like the smoothie that won’t come through the straw is proof.

When you think about the person you want to be—that you swear you could be, if you just got it “right”—instead of feeling inspired, you mostly want to take a nap. Having enough time to do that, though, is laughable, so you grit your teeth and think, “just one more day/week/month.” You know you’re juggling too much, but you’re not sure how to stop. It all feels so urgent, so important, so much like no one else will do it if you don’t (and it needs to get done, so guess what!). What you really want is someone to take a good look at it all and help you see what you can put down so you feel like you again.

→ Hi, hello, this is what I do. ←

Active Acceptance...because There's Nothing to Fix.

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, coaching, ballgnorance, general BAMFery

We are strong and worthy. Our goals should always be plans to improve and upgrade ourselves into elevation, not fix what’s “wrong” with what we see.
That framing makes all the difference in the world between yo-yo dieting and effortlessly eating to serve your goals, and between a 21-day “banish xyz flaw” plan and training to be more mobile, energetic, and powerful.