“Exercise is King, nutrition is Queen, put them together and you’ve got a Kingdom.”
I read this Jack Lalanne quote the other day and loved it! Words to live by in my book! It is truly and ultimately the only recipe that really works when you want to achieve long term, sustainable health and as always it comes down to choice. How do you want to live your life and what are willing to do in order to achieve it?
I try and make healthy choices and exercise but there are occasions like last week when I found myself playing between “showing up” and finding “motivation”. The alarm went off and the temptation was just to shut it off and go back to sleep and not over think all the reasons I should go to my spin class. But then, I thought OK, I’ll go and maybe just show up, after all that would be better than nothing right? Of course, once I got into the spin class there was no excuse for just showing up. The instructor, a truly gifted motivator had been sick earlier in the week and it quickly became apparent he did more than just show up!
After the class, we ended up having a conversation about what motivates us and how do we stay consistent and on that note; I thought it was worth speaking to.
What is your motivation? Are you just showing up? If we don’t have a motivation then it’s hard to do much more than show up! For me, my motivation comes from wanting to stay healthy and strong in both body and mind. I know without fail that nutrition is key – eating a diet of whole, organic, nutrient dense foods, cleansing and balancing the body provides the foundation. It takes time and consistency but once you establish it you’ll want to sustain it. The ability to move and challenge my body is such a habit that without it I know that I’m not being the best that I can be. The cleansing I feel when I break a good sweat gives me clarity around my day. Changing and breaking my routine/environment with another type of practice like yoga gives me a new engagement with my body in a completely different but wonderful way. I know that consistency can be hard at times and when we find ourselves off track it can be difficult to re-engage our motivation but this is where it’s great and definitely works to “show up” as with a little kindness and not obsessing over our lack of consistency, the motivation will once again show up.
So take a moment and think about whether you’re “just showing up” for your health and if so, I want you to stop and think hard about changing this. We deserve so much more than just showing up, as in the big picture of life I believe that most of us on a day-to-day basis do more than just show up. If you are engaged in this life, take the time to engage in your health – do more than show up – find your motivation and see what happens.
I think we can all agree that being engaged, being an explorer of what we can change, do better is a far more fulfilling way to enjoy this life!
