This month, I felt something reawaken in me.

March started off hot as I reconnected with an energy I hadn’t felt in a long time. The beginning of the month definitely felt like a turning point. This was confirmed by my physical body, since the mild Crohn’s flare and inflammation symptoms I had been experiencing had disappeared. I won’t give TMI, but we’re back to normal. I also started drinking pomegranate juice again, and everything is going well.

I went through significant emotional and mental healing in the past few weeks, and I believe my body is reflecting that healing. It has been shown that Gut health and mental/emotional health are connected.

I shed old identities like being super religious and feeling like I needed to be part of organized religion. As I’ve stated before, I got my starting lineup back into my life, and I reconnected with people who nourish my soul. I also began to limit my exposure to energy vampires and reduced my time in energetically draining spaces.

When a Fire Starts to Burn

I am down a solid 9lbs from the Fall Push, but I am not focusing on the pounds anymore. I want to get back to that health and fitness lifestyle where I was energized, fired up, and knew I was killing it because I was doing my best. I want to have fun and feel good in my body, which makes it easier to show up for workouts than to focus on weight loss.

There’s a fire starting to burn within me that I have not felt in a long time. I used to teach group fitness classes back in the day, and I want to get into that instructor energy, where fitness is fun, and we challenge ourselves to get 1% better at every class.

I’m Showing Up

Every time I show up for a workout, I tell myself that I am getting one step closer to being who I know I am supposed to be. This month, I missed a Friday morning workout (due to PMS fatigue) and got it in that afternoon.

I can do uncomfortable things

I had stopped doing fasted workouts because some experts said that fasting workouts increased cortisol, caused weight gain, and were bad, bad, bad.

During this season, I fasted two days a week for spiritual reasons and avoided working out on those days, but then out of curiosity, I decided to try working out on one of those days, and guess what? I did fine, and I am still alive. In fact, it suppressed my hunger for a while, and it added to my discipline habit stack.

I can do uncomfortable things.

It reminded me of something I read in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Pump Club Newsletter:

“You have to stop treating yourself like a rare, valuable artifact you keep in a safe and start doing it. Let yourself out of the safe. Start with simple goals.”

135 for 10 @45

One of my simple goals is to squat 135 pounds for 10 GOOD reps by the time I turn 45 in August.

I have spent the first quarter of the year working on it, and now I am up to 135 lbs for 2 sets of 3 reps. This is right where I want to be

Clothe Your Carbs

This month, I felt like I was snacking less and checking in with myself about my hunger cues. I am not using food so much as a coping mechanism for boredom. I was also better about getting in more protein. I like the clothe your carb approach where you don’t eat carbs by themselves. You clothe your carbs with protein or fat to stabilize your blood sugar and prevent unnecessary snacking.

I am also more energized because I am enjoying my new work environment. It has much better energy and is much livelier than my previous environment, which was draining and boring.

New Goal: Find another Fitness/Wellness community

My next goal is to find a fitness/wellness community to continue pushing myself to get better, whether through a class or another venue that helps me challenge myself. My current group fitness practice is yoga. I do enjoy my yoga practice, whether it is at home with Peloton’s Chelsea Jackson Roberts, various YouTube teachers like Yoga with Kassandra, Ease into Flo, and Sarah Beth. I also love taking in-person classes at my local studio. This past month, I took a wonderful Workshop with an instructor at my Yoga Studio about the Psoas (Hip Flexor muscle), where I learned good tips for myself and my clients, and discovered a great new teacher! Yoga has helped me to reconnect with my body and is grounding.

Chase 5K

We’re big Warriors fans, so when I found out they were hosting a 5K race, I signed right on up. This was before I discovered distance running might not be great for some of us with Crohn’s.

I only started walking/jogging for about 30 minutes about 2 weeks before, so that I wouldn’t fall out in the middle of the race and embarrass myself.

I ended up beating my goal time, even though I was walking and jogging. It wasn’t about the time for me, though. I enjoyed being at the Chase Center, running and walking with energized people on a GORGEOUS warm morning in San Francisco, taking in views of the Bay, and Oracle Park. It was a real treat, and it was only a 7-minute drive back home!!!