My Journey With Health And Fitness – Gaining Confidence

I am currently up at my trailer which as you know always concerns me in terms of working out. However, this morning by 11am I had already done 20km which is 30k steps. I got up at 5am and did a 2 hour walk, came back to rest for an hour and re-hydrate then back out for another 2 hour walk. I am doing this first thing in the morning for 2 reasons. 1) if I delay I know I will find a distraction like watching an eagle soar and the not workout and 2) it is bloody hot here so in order not to die in a pool of sweat then I need to beat the heat. I also then followed the walks up with a quick set of weight training. This is my 10th consecutive day of 30+k steps and I have decided everyday from now until the end of my 6 week challenge I will meet that level of walking.

When I started my challenge at Goodbrand Fitness I was really nervous. While they assured me they catered to all fitness levels and could modify exercises to meet my needs I was still sceptical. And, to be honest I hadn’t been to a gym in about 30 years so I was sure things in fitness classes had changed a lot and they had. I attended my first class and felt completely like an uncoordinated buffoon. However, I quickly realized they could modify the exercise to accommodate my bad knee and back. Moreover, they gave less challenging ways to do the exercises so if you weren’t quite as fit so you could still work out.

Now I admit when I started I would often opt for the less challenging methods. Some justification I was able to use is that well, higher intensity is bad for the knee oh and heavier weights could bother the my spinal stenosis so I better use lighter weights. I did that for the first 2 weeks and then told myself that I can actually do this so time to suck it up.

Over the past few weeks I have continued to push myself more (seriously walking at least 20km a day should be proof enough) and decided I need to try exercises in class at a more intense level. Yesterday during the bootcamp class I realized I am absolutely there. When given the chance to modify and making the exercises easier I am declining and pushing myself. Ok, there are exercises I can’t do but I even push the modifications to the max. And I admit, it is not killing me.

So why the change? Well, I’ve come to realize that I can do this shit. I’ve also given myself permission that it is ok if I am working my ass off on something and need to take a 2 second break, then so be it especially if I am pushing myself. It has meant my confidence has grown 10 fold but then so has my determination to see this through.

I have so got this!