What Do You Make Non-Negotiable?

What Do You Make Non-Negotiable?

At the beginning of March, I joined two of my friends in a month-long exercise challenge where we had to commit to doing some sort of exercise every single day. It was a very interesting month. I had two business trips – one to San Diego and the other to Japan (which included two 24-hour travel days). I also had to deal with a snow day at the beginning of the month… so my daughter was home from school on a day that I didn’t plan for. One of my friends I was doing the challenge with got incredibly sick and was hosting a number of events around the same time. Despite these seemingly very good excuses not to follow through, we all still managed to complete our challenge!

Every single day we did some sort of exercise. On the days I was traveling, and it felt like I didn’t have any time whatsoever, I did an 8 minute Fastblast – which is a HIIT workout (a high intensity interval training workout). On the days my friend was sick, she did a yoga flow designed for people suffering with a cold or the flu.

On a typical day, which is already packed from morning to night, I was determined to do a morning yoga practice and try to fit in some sort of muscle conditioning, or Fastblast, or cardio dance workout as well. The three of us would text each other every day to share what we did in terms of exercise. We were accountability partners for each other, and it helped us stay the course. It also helped that we’re all very much type-A personalities so none of us wanted to be the first person to miss a day of exercise and drop out of the challenge!

Today is April 1st and I have to say that I feel fantastic! I have more energy, I’m in a better mood overall, and I’m noticing that my muscles are more defined. No April Fools here! I also feel that my clothes are starting to look better on me, and I believe that’s happening for two reasons. #1 Because I’m changing the shape of my body by exercising every day, and #2 Because exercise releases endorphins, which will boost your self-image.

I have a spring in my step that I’m very aware of and I know it’s directly linked to the fact that I’m moving my body and getting my heart rate up every day. I made exercise nonnegotiable. It’s been a great lesson in that implementing change is totally possible, and the only thing that stands in our way is our excuses.

“Oh I’m so busy.”

“I have too much on my plate.”

“I’m dealing with too much today and have NO time to fit it in.”

“I’m too tired.”

“I’m not feeling well.”

I’m not talking about people who are dealing with a major crisis of course, but our brains are really powerful and what they’re most powerful at is making up excuses for why we didn’t get something done.

After this challenge I realize now, more than ever, that you will never change your life until you change your perspective on what you make nonnegotiable. Especially an 8-minute Fastblast. We all have 10 minutes we can dedicate to some exercise during the day – and it can start with pealing yourself away from social media and/or Netflix.

If you are ready for a Lifestyle Challenge, click here for my 4-part video coaching series!