2020 started out like any other year, full of promise, optimism and potential for a great year ahead. I had so much to look forward to, finishing up the school year and starting a new one, volunteering with non profit organizations, celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to somewhere I’ve never been before. I was ready to conquer it all while continuing my health and fitness journey. Then March hit and the wind went out of my sails almost overnight. No end of the school year, no events to plan and work on, no anniversary trip.
I’ll admit that in the beginning I was full of self pity, anger and resentment. I was sick of not being able to make decisions for myself and being told what to do by literally everyone with a social media account. That anger turned to sadness and could very easily have become full blown depression, but I decided that I was going to take control of my own destiny (at least what I could control).
With no events to plan, I found myself with lots of excess time. I decided to take that time to focus on myself. I was going to try to be the best version of me that I could be.
For years, I have been struggling with patellar subluxation or dislocation. It made it really hard to workout because I couldn’t do many of the exercises. My last round of physical therapy which ended in March thankfully, contained lots of exercises that I had remembered doing in #80DayObsession when I had done it the previous year. I remember struggling with it at the time and it being a real grind. The workouts were mostly close to an hour long which made it hard for me to do before I went to work in the morning (I’m a mid-morning person not an early riser). With more time in the mornings now, I decided to tackle it again. I started with really light weights for the lower body exercises and lightened up when I felt knee pain. It was slow going but I didn’t get discouraged. By the end of the first 80 days I had increased my weights in every exercise. I went right to A Little More Obsessed then started 80 Day Obsession over again with no break. By halfway through my second round I was using the same or heavier weights than the cast. I was getting toned and I felt strong. I went back to work and had to pick a shorter workout after I finished up my second round of 80 Day Obsession but I still feel proud of the results and that will be my summer workout of choice.
Fitness on track, I turned to my nutrition. I was eating good, not great, just good. I was following a nutrition plan I had been using for years that had always worked for me (#21DayFix plan) but I was cheating too much. I firmed it up a bit but I wasn’t getting the results I used to get and I wasn’t feeling good. So I decided to go see a nutritionist to find out how to fix things. I had all kinds of testing and the results were eye opening. I found out that although I was eating a lot of protein, my body wasn’t digesting it properly so I was at a protein deficit. That was making me feel sluggish, bloated and sick after every meal. My nutritionist put me on an eating plan very similar to what I was doing and added in some supplements and it has made a world of difference. We tweak things here and there but the way I feel is like night and day. I’m so glad I didn’t just accept that as the way it would be from now on and took control.
The last thing I did with my extra time was improve my mental well being. I was very focused on 80 Day Obsession so when the creator, Autumn Calabrese launched a podcast, Let’s Do Life, I had to listen. This was the first time I had listened to a podcast. I learned so much. I decided to try others. I had always loved Chalene Johnson’s workouts so I started listening to #TheChaleneShow. I was getting such great insight and learning so much from these podcasts. Then, one day on The Chalene Show she had a guest, Julie Ledbetter on her show. I connected so much with that episode and as it turns out, Julie also had a podcast, #EmbraceYourReal. That podcast absolutely changed my life. It felt like she was speaking right to me in every episode. Not only did I learn a ton but Embrace Your Real has challenged me to think differently. Julie’s podcast has really helped me be the best version of me I can be! I still have improvements to make and I’ll continue with all of the above things in 2021 but I certainly am making progress. At the end of the day, it’s all about continuing to put one foot in front of the other.
So while 2020 was a disaster it did provide promise, optimism new opportunities and plenty of potential for a great year. We just had to look a little harder to find those things. Bring on 2021!
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