It's Love Month ❤️ February 2023

It’s Love Month <3

Love your body, love your mind, love your life.

Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with pink, red and hearts. Love, love love. Which also seems to be paired with excess sugar and goods.

It’s February and that means love month. At TOA love month looks a bit different than you might see at the chain stores crossing America. Instead of focusing on those we love, buying them the perfect gift to express it, covered in chocolate; we focus on self-love.

Now self-love has been a hot word in the media as of late, usually pointing you toward a new product made to make you feel and look 10 years younger.  At TOA, our self-love looks like the confidence to make the decisions that will make you live a longer, healthier, more functional life. You need to achieve three loves to make this happen: Love your body. Love your Mind. Love your life.

Love Your Body.

To achieve step number one, the trick is movement. Every single day. Get up and move. This can be a kick ass workout at your local TOA or it can be a walk (double points if you’re rucking). It can be playing with the grandkids or going for a round of golf or pickle ball; something to get your body moving. Loving our body doesn’t me accepting it for all its faults, it means treating it like the only home we have; because, it is the only body we’ll get this time around.

Remembering that we can lose up to 3-5% muscle mass every decade (10% each decade after 60)(a straight line to sarcopenia and loss of function) as we age, we need to be proactive with loving our body. We need to treat it well, love the shit out of it by making it work hard! It will thank you!

Love Your Mind.

Step two: love your mind. Believe it or not, this one is also achieved by moving! What? I know sounds silly. But by moving each day, we are keeping those blood vessels strong, open and clear. We are challenging the way our body thinks during movement.

Another way to love your mind, is by learning something new. NEVER STOP LEARNING! This can be a new language, skill, craft, or game. Every time you’re learning something new, you build new pathways, grow new connections. Talk about self-love, your brain can get younger! 

Love Your Life.

We are living in a society that shows each person’s highlight reel through social media, it encourages you to want more, it breeds an entitled victim mentality. How in the world are we to love our life when we are bombarded with the feeling that we are not enough?

Step One: Finding your measurement tools. That’s how. Should I measure myself against Jennifer Aniston? Heck no! For starters I don’t want her life; but I don’t live in that world and never will. I am not an actor. Instead, I should set my standards a bit more realistic to what matters to me (hint: it isn’t an ungodly amount of money and fame). What matters to me first and foremost, is my health. Without that, I can’t enjoy anything. So that’s number one, then I have standards like being the most genuine person I can be. Followed by having a loving family that I cherish each moment we get together; we’re involved and engaged with each other.  Then go ahead and throw on a goal of getting to do the things I desire (homeschool, travel, work from home…).

By setting my standards by MY metrics and not another person’s, I can achieve them and then adjust as needed. If I am constantly comparing to Jennifer Aniston, I will always feel like a failure; that is not my life and will never be. Thank heavens! This is step one.

Step Two: Engage with friends and family. Having people in your circle, those you can call on, those that make you laugh and challenge your inner dialogue are key in loving your life. Those that make you feel less than, that make you feel bad… not needed, start to distance yourself from them.

Step Three: DO NOT accept being unhappy. Now, no one I happy all the time, that is not realistic or healthy. But accepting that your life is sad and miserable, that’s not okay either! There is always something to do to turn the table. Don’t accept anything but the life you want to have.

Step Four: Reflection. To me this is the most important. You need to be able to reflect on your life, decisions, behavior and see how they are affecting you and those around you. Being able to sit with uncomfortable situations and see them, dissect them and to adjust in the future will ensure that you are always growing as a person and that is KEY to loving your life.

Fun.

I was reminded of a saying I used to use when I was a teenager about the sport I played. When it stops being fun, I’m done playing. Now there are things we need to do in life that may not be all that fun, but just need to get done. Why not do those tedious tasks with a smile and a laugh? By having fun, something foreign to most adults, we can love life, even when it is tough.

Remember to PLAY your way through life; do it with a smile and take it light. None of us needs to be that serious.

February 2023 ©BeSTRONGERFitness