TransActive Fitness: If Not Now, When?

  1. Most of us start going to the gym to shape our bodies and our health. 

  2. Then we go there because we recognize that it feels good, once it is done feeling bad. 

  3. Then we go there because we experience change. While the change may be physical, it is never only that. Mentally, emotionally, and some would stay spiritually, our cells reconfigure with the muscle fibers to contribute to a new way of being, a new sense of self. We get to know aspects of ourselves that have not had the opportunity to express themselves fully as they have never been challenged in quite the same way. Sometimes this feels like a gift, other times it feels impossible to be with ourselves. At our best, we are able to find our stride here, and step 3 continues to be a long term relationship with lasts until the finish line. 

Other times we stop going. Maybe we have eaten poorly, maybe we haven’t kept up with our outside physical homework, maybe it feels too hard. Maybe we have gotten “too busy” and reprioritized our time, maybe we are injured. Take heart, for most who make it to step 3, it seems to be only a matter of time before returning to step 1.

We return to step 1 because it becomes a matter of life or death - our health, our self-esteem. We remember what it felt like to feel step 2 good, and we become desperate for a step 3 change.



I have learned that it doesn’t matter how many time we rinse and repeat through the cycle, we always come out cleaner on the other side with a deeper understanding of ourselves, closer to balance and consistency then we are when we start.

If you hear this as an invitation to be slack in your dedication, let me be totally clear - lasting change only comes through diligence and mindful attention in an ongoing dedicated practice. If you hear this as an invitation to be kind with yourself, and to get back on the horse as many times as it takes, then you are feelin’ me - take my extended hand. Mike keeps offering me his, it is the least I can do.





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