First of all, let’s just give a BIG shoutout to G who ran a 47-hour race this weekend and completed 100 MILES! Just to put that in perspective for you, she started running about the time you were sitting at happy hour on Friday night and she didn’t stop (except for a little sleep and sustenance) until you were ready to go to bed on Sunday night!  I drove to the mountains, which is about 90 minutes from my house and it’s only 69 miles.  Think about it the next time you are driving somewhere in your car and you see it’s 100 miles to your destination.  Make a mental note of how far that really is and remember, G RAN THAT FAR!  Take a minute today and send G a message to congratulate her on this amazing accomplishment and to her hubby John who ran 71 miles which is a PR for him as well.  Way to show us how it’s done guys!

G has big, audacious goals that require huge amounts of training, endurance and mental stamina.  Let’s be honest, sometimes just getting to the gym can feel like a big, audacious goal for some of us.  We aren’t here to make comparisons or feel bad about ourselves because we have different goals from G,  our friend or our spouse.  We are here to think about what we want for ourselves and support one another in not just doing it, but doing it well.

When we started putting the framework of #365Being together back in November I knew that by March I wanted to be working on a solid workout plan.  I assumed I would still be working out, as it’s usually part of my daily routine, but even in November I felt like March would be the perfect time to kick it into high gear.

I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t exactly right either.

While I do have a pretty solid workout plan, it looks different that I thought it would be back in November.  The last few months I have realized that there is a distinction between working out and moving my body.  Back in October, Rachel Hollis and her crew promoted moving your body for 30 minutes each day as one of the 5 tenets of their 90-day challenge.  I can remember thinking that accountability for my workouts was exactly what I needed over the holiday season and I had visions of sweaty, calorie burning workouts EVERY SINGLE DAY.  HA!  As if the holidays aren’t hard enough, throw in some hospital stays, travel and planning a wedding and you are definitely NOT going to get to the gym every day for 90 days.  It seems so obvious, but I can still remember thinking about working out versus moving my body while I was sitting in the hospital all day knowing that a “workout” was not in the cards.  I thought back to the idea of moving my body and something clicked inside of me.  I got up and walked the halls, the stairs, anything I could find, for 30 minutes and it felt so good.  Sure, the simple act of moving felt good, especially after sitting most of the day, but what felt the best was that I kept the promise to myself. I didn’t make excuses or phone it in, I just did it. In the past, if I had found myself in a similar situation I would have just not worked out.  It might have just been that one day or it could have bled into multiple days of slacking off.

Over the course of those 90 days I began to see moving my body for 30 minutes each day as an act of self-care; self-love which is totally different than the often guilt inducing workout that needs to be checked off my list or I feel like I somehow failed on that particular day. On the days when my motivation is low or I am pressed for time, moving my body feels like a priority and that is a big change for me.

We are going to talk more about working out, eating well and really creating a solid plan next week, but so many of us just need to make moving our bodies a priority.  There is freedom in knowing that if all you can do is get on the floor and stretch your body for 30 minutes you are still moving, loving and caring for yourself.  Yes, we need more, but this is where we will begin; with intention, self-love and starting down the path of being well with movement.