For the past year, I have been working as a secondary social studies teacher, a population not known for their tech savvy abilities nor our gym presence. We stay busy throughout the school year and our stack of papers to grade make for a wretched workout partner. This has caused quite a curiosity about my motivation for starting a fitness blog. Many people know that I believe strongly in holistic health and taking care of each area of your life and that I also find the gym a form of stress relief. While both of these are completely true, they are only a small part of why I have begun pursuing a more serious approach a fit lifestyle. The true motivation for my interest in creating time in my life to take care of my body goes back about 16 years ago. It saddens me to realize that most of my students weren’t yet born at this point. I want to take a few moments to share a snippet of my story and tell you what motivates me to invest my time into fitness.
From the age of 10 until around 13, I struggled with an eating disorder and just like many girls who have dealt with the same issue, I worked out. A lot. I would do cardio for a few hours a day, and even when I thought I had overcome everything, I would set the alarm on my phone for 11:30 pm on the dot to wake up and do Pilates until I was too tired to keep going. I knew so many tips on fitness, or rather I had a wealth of misused and often inaccurate information. My motivation for working out started as a series of rules and ways to make exercise a means of giving myself control over my life and my past– or rather the illusion of control. I knew how to work out to be thin, but not to be healthy. Because I was emotionally unhealthy, my obsession over my body became unhealthy. I thought I was being physically healthy, but the result was holistically unhealthy.
As I began my journey to healing, the rules became fewer and the workouts became a much more appropriate length of time. Fast forward an unnamed amount of years to about August of last year. I had maintained my diligence to go to the gym, at first not for feeling highly motivated but simply out of rigid habit. As I maintained consistency, I began to use my time at the gym to unwind and set healthy goals for myself. My motivation became healthier and so did my body. And then I had a day that was…. right next door to the depths of Hell. I had so many things falling apart in my family and personal life, and I was struggling to survive at my new teaching position. I brought all of the frustration and irritation (and perchance… a little self-pity) and I took it out at the gym. And it was the most glorious time at the gym. Something clicked and I found a motivation to take things to the next level. I have always believe in holistic health and taking care of every part of yourself. but just as I want to put in the effort to take care of my emotional well-being, I also want to put forth the effort into taking care of my body. When I take care of my body, it helps me to feel better emotionally. I want to keep my eyes on the big picture of my whole self, and not just bits and pieces of my health.
Find Your Motivation
My “why” for the gym became about becoming the absolute best version of myself. I started off pursuing an unhealthy view of fitness and knowing just enough to do damage to myself. You may have a similar motivation as me or maybe you want to hit up the gym because you want to transform your body or you have a natural passion. Whatever your reason, you need to find it and remember it because it will be the only thing keeping you going back time and time again.