All in Bold Body Initiative
Once upon a time, someone asked me if I would join them in training for a bodybuilding show.
It sounded like a good idea at the time: I’d have a group of women that would hold me accountable; I had a deadline that included me being on a stage in a tiny sparkly bikini; I had a meal plan perfectly laid out for me.
All I had to do was follow it.
Any guesses on how long that lasted for me?
Fitness is about your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
It’s about feeling at home in your body, knowing that you have a powerful tool at your disposal, ready to tackle rogue babies crawling all over your floor, a demanding work life stretching your skills, the weekend pickup kickball game with your friends, and anything else in between.
It’s about saying YES to the life you want to live without the nagging thoughts of, “I don’t have anything to wear,” or, “I shouldn’t do that, because I had too many Goldfish yesterday.”
It’s about FINALLY not missing out on 95% of your life in order to weigh 5% less.
Which is why I've developed The Bold Body Initiative, a 12-week fitness and body image group coaching program to help you feel at home in your body — no matter what you're wearing or doing or eating.
Toning, sculpting (coolsculpting?), shaping, firming: they're all the same.
They're words used to indicate physical transformation. I can get on board with that: you're powerful beyond measure, and you have the power to show up in your body (and in your life) exactly as you see fit.
The issue I take, though, is that those are almost exclusively used to give us all the same goal: getting smaller.
Fitness is about SO much more than that.
I did a new thing recently.
Due to injuries, stress, and poor-quality sleep, I've been moving my body in new ways. It's been a process of relearning how to tune in — something that is relatively easy for me under some heavy weight, but, I've noticed, is not so natural (at least not without a steady stream of judgment) in other mediums of movement.
I've been doing some #mediocreyoga for about 6 months (which you've seen intermittently in my Instagram stories, if you're playing along!), and earlier this week, a new class was advertised that was beginner-friendly. I'm also in a new area, so, I figured, why not?
And just like that, I took my mediocre yoga out into the world.
I'm not into before-and-after photos, because I don't believe in comparison.
Not even of the "#youvsyou" variety.
I've found them to be damaging for many people: implying that smaller is always better, or that the "after" version of you is somehow more worthy, the new standard against which you should measure from now on.
I'm constantly changing, and the past iteration of myself isn't bad or wrong or less evolved. She's just different.
Rigidity in our programs keeps us uninformed: it keeps us enslaved to a program or a personality dictating our goals to us and promising that their methods are best. We don't give ourselves the opportunity to be our own best teachers—to explore, to experiment, or to say, "that's not my jam."
Allowing my body the space to not be perfect showed me that I actually don't have to be perfect anywhere. I know what's best for me, and I can change course at any time.
