Hey.
So, uh, yeah. We need to talk about this. I’m sure you might be wondering anyway, and I’m nothing if not totally open and transparent with you always, so let’s chat.
There’s something major happening in our world right now, and I realize I don’t need to remind anyone of that. But still, did you ever think you’d say the words “global health crisis” and have them apply to something other than a dystopian book or movie? Neither did I, but here we are. It’s wild. And weird. And certainly worrying.
While, like, somewhere from 80 to 97 percent of our lives are in a whole lot of turmoil, what’s been really interesting for me to observe are the parts that aren’t. The things that hold steady. One of the most disturbing things?
Toxic fitness and diet culture and rhetoric.
In the midst of so many very, very and real and terrifying concerns for our health and humanity, I have seen and heard an unfortunate amount of concern for gaining weight, getting out of shape, not being able to fit into a certain size of pants, and general panic about body stuff.
It makes me sad. It breaks my heart. And if I’m being totally honest with you, which I always am, it frustrates me to no end in its incongruity to the overall situation.
Let me explain that a little further.
I wanna be super clear that I actually do understand where folks are coming from with this, and you are a million percent entitled to all your feelings about your body, its parts, its size, what you’re doing or not doing with it.
I’m absolutely not trying to say you’re wrong for anything you’re thinking or feeling, and I truly have an unending amount of compassion and empathy for anyone who is feeling frustrated or confused or afraid about body stuff right now (or anytime). I have absolutely been there, and I have, for the vast majority of my life, been the person who could barely focus on anything other than what my body looked like and exactly what its fat percentage was, to the tenth of a percent.
Often, our bodies are the only thing in our lives we feel we have any sense of control over. It’s why we go on diets or count calories or weigh ourselves or work out religiously or run marathons or whatever. And in our current situation? We’re losing control even further, so naturally, we lean on something that’s familiar.
But listen, this kind of control was not exactly a positive before the world changed. It’s not going to be a positive going forward either.
The toxic and negative nature of fitness and diet rhetoric and how it influenced our behavior and perspective was concerning and upsetting and frustrating long, long before this coronavirus came along. So all the reasons that the coaching I do were important then, are only amplified now. While I focused on understanding what truly matters to you and finding your right way before, I am laser freaking focused on it now.
Have you been getting a little clearer on what matters in your life in the last month? What’s important to you? What your priorities are? Even if you haven’t been doing some kind of specific personal development work or journaling around that, I bet you’re feeling it. Now, whatever you’re finding out, especially as it relates to your body and your fitness – does it look how it always looked? Is it shifting? Is it radically different? Do you want it to shift?
Here’s the thing: You get to choose however you think and feel about and treat your body. But it’s a really, really, vitally important choice. And it’s a choice you have to make no matter what the world looks like. Don’t you want that choice to reflect you values, what matters most?
So, why is Fitness Unraveled important during the COVID-19 pandemic?
It’s important because your body does not exist in a vacuum. The thoughts, feelings, and treatment you choose affect everything in your life – from family, to partnerships, to career, and everything in between, and that will never go away. How you approach that, how you let it reflect what matters most to you, that can change your life.
Not gonna lie, I’m real scared for what’s going to happen when we’re able to start returning to “normal” life (you know what I mean here). I’m terrified that hordes of people are going to flock to diets and restriction and over-exercising and intensified negative body-talk and shaming. I’m very worried that many folks who were already struggling with dealing with this stuff are going to be in an even worse position to deal with it in a few months.
This is an incredibly emotionally intense time, and we can only deal with so much, it’s true. But doing the best that we can to equip ourselves with how to deal what’s going on, and what’s going to come out of this, especially as it relates to our physical bodies, is crucial. Jokes about #quarantine15 are not exactly our best tools for coping.
Learning self-compassion, kindness, and how to give ourselves a little more acceptance is a worthy effort, always.
I mean, it’s not like those skills aren’t going to be useful for the rest of your life, in many areas of your life. Without a doubt, they’re beneficial tools to cultivate today, and that’s what we’ll do in the group over the next three months.
OK, one final thing to make my point – have you caught this article? It does a good job of summing up why Fitness Unraveled is relevant, why it matters so deeply right now. Basically, now’s not the time to be obsessing about your body, but really, neither is anytime. If you nodded at any point while reading it, I think you feel me on some level and probably see what I’m saying. But still, the problem is that there’s a disconnect between agreeing that this is an issue and knowing what the hell to do about it.
That’s the part you get in Fitness Unraveled. You get the how. You get the actual guidance, and you will learn the steps, the what the heck do I do, and the how to utilizing your power to make the choices that reflect what you really feel about your body and what matters most to you. You can finally close the gap between thinking these things and now knowing how to make change.
I mean, if we’re going to be making some fresh starts, this is a pretty good one to opt into.
If you have more questions about whether this is right for you now, check out the FAQs, send me an email, or schedule a call below. But if you’re thinking about it? Now’s the time.