Be Tenacious!
Live relentlessly. Progress continuously.
One of my female athletes, Kristen, recently completed a half-marathon. Kristen is one tough person. She is eager, enthusiastic, goal-oriented and accountable. Essentially, she’s a dream client. She gives honest, real feedback and asks questions, anything from nutrition, to supplementation, to body rhythms and rest. Kristen has also come a long way.
Like many other female clients, Kristen sought order and structure in her health. I find that women operate in extremes a bit more than men, and their bodies often are the representation of that extreme. The spectrum can run from super, rail-thin, nutrient deficient to obese, compulsive, coping behavior. The unifying factor with each of these women, and all the women in between is purpose. My initial job is to help define and represent purpose in relation to fitness training and exercise. If I can relate daily positive behavior and choices, to a goal-success that we’ve established, the “realness” of the association makes the lifestyle easier to accept.
Women are fierce in their self-representation. Using their intellect, career, passions, and life-balance to do so. Simply put: women seek to achieve objectives, which makes them such a joy to work with. Getting back to my athlete Kristen, her goal was to establish control and increase her capacity to do. Meaning she wanted to be balanced nutritionally, to have energy to workout after a long day at work, to be able to do pushups and pull-ups, to be able to run 10k’s, half-marathon’s, and race sprint triathlons. Once we made the association (of fitness and life empowerment) the commit to change was solidified. The path to lifestyle change is best represented by the stock market. We want to trend upward, avoiding deep valleys, while investing the time needed to see fruition. When Kristen experienced failure or inadequate results in training she would always ask/wonder “how and why”. It wasn’t “I can’t do those” or “I can’t do that”. How and why are the two questions that continue to keep her on the path of relentless, forward, progress. When Kristen lined up to run that half-marathon she had been living the lifestyle for one full year. The journey had brought her to the race start, not a year older, but a year better, a completely different person now stood waiting anxiously for the starting gun to fire. The race unraveled a lot like any new challenge undertaken. Ability, energy and enthusiasm carried her to the 9-mile mark averaging 7:45/mile, which is a great pace. Then, suddenly things changed. She got sick, and started cramping badly. It got so bad she passed out twice, falling hard onto the pavement and getting scraped up. When she came to, her calves were so tight they had to be massaged at the aid stations. Do you think she quit? No. She was tenacious. The previous year of problem solving and solution seeking had set her up to succeed. Kristen’s mindset was to give her best, always. Making it to the finish line, she was very sore, battered and a bit confused as to what had just happened, but ELATED that she finished! In the days that followed we came to the conclusion that her diet was simply not supplying her with enough fuel for her active lifestyle. Her body also was lacking in minerals and electrolytes, which led to the cramping. These are easy things to fix moving forward.
Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right. Having a “can-do” attitude and spirit is something that you have or you don’t. We must all do our best to cultivate a positive spirit that lives for the experience. It’s never a failure if we refuse to quit! Always remember, you are better than you think you are and you can do more than you think you can. Now go do it!
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