FXYouCan week is a good time to remind yourself of not only the benefits of physical fitness and challenging yourself, but also to reflect on the mental benefits of exercise. Challenging yourself physically doesn’t have to be about losing weight and getting your body ‘bikini ready’, or whatever the Christmas alternative to that is.
Challenge Yourself:
Your body is your own. It belongs to you, and you alone should determine how you feel about it.
We all know our limits; we alone know what we are comfortable with. Pushing yourself can be as simple as walking to get gas instead of driving like you usually would, or doing some yoga for 5-10 minutes each morning. It could go as far as committing to weekly basketball classes, or going for a run on a Sunday morning. Almost any challenge you set yourself – as long as you feel comfortable with it – will be effective, and it’ll make you want to progress even further!
My own challenge started when I was 18. I tried running. It failed, miserably. I tried to run for 20 minutes once a week along the walk to my old school, and found that cats and the burning in my lungs constantly distracted me. Not for me, but I was okay with that.
I tried a Jillian Michaels video instead – 30 Day Shred, to be precise. Jillian yelled a lot, but then sometimes went into these deep talks about why you were doing this video, and how pushing yourself would make you feel good. She recognized that if you were doing this workout, something in you wanted to know you could do it, and you alone were going to determine if you had been successful.
It’s Not About Weight:
It’s not about shredding body weight, it’s about shredding your limits and knowing that no matter if you have to pause the video to take a break, or if you pull a muscle and have to take a day off, you’re doing something you enjoy that makes you feel good. Don’t feel like you have a duty to exercise, because you don’t.
Carrie Hope Fletcher was recently called ‘fat’ in a comment on one of her Instagram photos, and her response summed up body positivity perfectly:
If you have to start small, so be it. If you don’t want to diet, don’t. Nobody should ever make you feel bad about your body, so this FXYouCan week, find a reason to dig deeper that is for you, not for anybody else.
Don’t push yourself out of shame, or fear, or discomfort with how you are. Find the parts of yourself that you love, and challenge yourself to push them further. More importantly, be kind to yourself. Let your body have time off, don’t take ‘challenge’ to mean exhausting yourself or beating yourself up when you don’t do as well as you planned. You set your own limits, and you define your sense of self worth, so learn from Carrie and love yourself no matter what – it honestly helps, and you’ll feel so much happier for it!
The Mental Benefits of Exercise:
I sort of peaked when I did Shaun T’s Insanity. Every morning, I would wake up and take on the challenge. I could feel myself being pushed, and every time Shaun would yell ‘DIG DEEPER’ I would find myself applying this to everyday activities. I didn’t get ripped, I’ve never seen results on the scales, but I’ve got better at what I do. I’m able to push myself further, I learned how to organise my day so I’d be able to fit in exercise, work and relaxation. I started getting better at dealing with my emotions, with stress, I could sleep better and I could even run up the stairs without stopping!
That May, I did the 5k Race For Life, raised almost £100 for charity and didn’t stop running until I got to the finish line. I ran continuously for just over 25 minutes after not running since that time I gave up at the beginning of my self-motivated challenge.
The point here is that you don’t have to exercise to feel good abut yourself, but if it’s something you want to do, I would recommend it. After that run, I felt empowered. I joined a taekwondo class – something I’ve wanted to do for years – and I’m now finding even bigger challenges to face, at the same time I’m face greater challenges in my everyday and professional life.
I can’t tell you how much it’s helped me mentally – there are so many challenges in life and at university that often need strength and courage to be dealt with effectively. Exercise helps me to think through stress, make space in my week to dedicate to me, and gives me extra boosts of confidence that help me get through difficult times.
Be sure to take a look at the FXYouCan page here, and if you see something you want to do, set yourself a challenge. If you’d rather just go for a nice stroll along the beach, in the spirit of self-motivation and personal challenges, get out there and stroll!