Greatest gift is a loving, supportive group!

I heard a song on the way home from my L3 Leadership women's group that said, "the greatest risk we'll ever take is by far is to stand in the light and be seen as we are." Well after tonight's meeting, I would say that it's also the greatest GIFT by far when we can stand, being fully open and ourselves, and be loved and accepted.

Our group of 11 women opened their hearts, shared their struggles and vulnerabilities, and welcomed each other with love and open arms. I left feeling FULL of joy and so excited to build on the friendships with the women of the group who I already know and to build loving friendships with the ones I met for the first time.

I had a flashback to our L3 Leadership meeting at this time last year and it made my heart smile to think of the friendships that bloomed out of the people I was meeting for the first time or just beginning to get to know.

So much MAGIC can be created when a group of vulnerable and expansive people can come together; friends that push me yet comfort me; friends that challenge me to grow and ALWAYS have my best interests in mind; people who walk strongly in their faith and inspire me with the way they live life.

A big thing I worked on last year was to be extremely intentional with who I spend my time with. I know that surrounding myself with people who I want to BE MORE LIKE, not only brings the best out in me- it brings so much joy to my life!

So THANK YOU to Laura Smith for starting this group this year and to all of you who came wanting to better yourselves and help everyone in the group do the same! Together we lift each other higher than we could ever go alone and I am SO GRATEFUL for each and every one of you and our wonderful, loving group as a whole!!!

If I could offer one piece of advice to anyone reading this- if you haven't found a group of people yet that makes you feel fully supported while challenging you to live your best life, intentionally seek it. Your group is out there too, waiting with open arms!

I would be honored to help you with your health and fitness (or LIFE) journey!!  Here is a link to sign up for a free account with me as your coach: https://www.teambeachbody.com/signup/-/signup/free?referringRepId=183908. Or you can go to www.teambeachbody.com, sign up for a free account, and enter any of my info in when it asks if a coach referred you: screen name: KatelynLesk, coach ID: 183908

You can contact me or find out more information using:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachKatelynLesk

Beachbody page: http://beachbodycoach.com/katelynlesk

Or my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/kate37721

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.

A follow-up about self-love and weight loss

As a follow-up to my post the other day about loving yourself to where you want to be rather than guilting/shaming/self-hating your way there (full post here: http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/09/love-yourself-to-where-you-want-to-be.html), I wanted to add some additional questions/ideas that will hopefully provoke some good thoughts and allow you to solidify for yourself why it is so important to try to be a little more self-loving. A HUGE thank you goes out to my friend, Evonne. A lot of these points came from an awesome conversation with her and I want to give her due credit.

She pointed out how often we link happiness to the weight we were at during a certain great period of life while completely neglecting that there were probably a whole bunch of other reasons that were much more the ACTUAL cause of our happiness! Wow, what a great point. There have been times when I was at the lower end of my normal weight range but my relationships, career, faith, etc were not aligned and I was completely miserable (another fantastic Evonne-ism, “Standing alone and thin is no fun”). Then there were other times when I was on the upper end of my weight range but life was stellar and I was living up every moment of it (see picture)! True freedom is learning how to love yourself and appreciate life and enjoy what you’ve got no matter what the external circumstances are!!

As Evonne so brilliantly put it, “I didn’t get thin and get happy, it was the other way around.” How true is that?? Often times they go hand in hand. As we eat better, the healthier food improves our mood (I also now NOTICEABLY recognize not-so-healthy food negatively effecting my mood). As we workout more, we feel stronger, we feel more vitality, and the endorphins boost our mood as well. We also typically feel more in alignment of what we WANT for our lives. But there are also other ways to lose weight in the short-term that don’t necessarily involve these healthy methods and certainly don’t produce these feel-good effects. More often than not, as we FEEL GOOD about ourselves, LOVE ourselves as I spoke of the other day, and find appreciation for what we have in the here and now, that is NATURALLY going to translate to our physical appearance. Think of the GLOW that radiates from someone who is really excited about life! In those states of flow, it is much easier for those healthier habits to fall into place rather than being stressed, frustrated with life, and putting pressure on ourselves to lose 5 pounds because we are unhappy with our lives and we think that will make us feel better. Truth is, it might. Temporarily. But it’s not going to fix the bigger issues that can ONLY come with a lot of internal work on ourselves and on our outlook on life. What we resist, persists. And whether that be resisting self-acceptance and self-love because we are 10 pounds heavier than where we want to be or resisting doing the TRUE work that we know we need to do on ourselves (internally- mentally, emotionally, spiritual), those circumstances will persist on. It’s only when we enter a state of acceptance do we release the blocks and pressure that have been holding us back and enter into a state of allowance. EVERYTHING happens more easily there because it happens from a place of love. It is the changes we make on the INSIDE that show up in our external world.

Finally, I would like to offer you a chance to take the next couple minutes to pause and meditate on how it would really FEEL to not care about your weight. Some of you may think that you would let yourself eat whatever you want and end up gaining weight. Well, that would be based on the assumption that it is only your pressure, guilt, and shame that will help you lose the weight you desire. I beg to differ. I have seen countless people attack weight loss with such pressure and rigidity that they end up quitting altogether. I have also seen people take the slow and steady route, allow themselves indulgences along the way, and still get to where they wanted to be. Think of how you would feel if the pressure was finally off. If you weren’t worried about how people would judge you. If you could solely base your decisions on your own happiness and love for yourself. Where would that lead you? ** Picture the difference in the energy if I locked you in room with a canvas, some paints, and a Da Vinci painting and told you that you had to recreate it PERFECTLY to the exact specifications. Now picture walking through a garden on a beautiful day and stumbling upon a blank canvas, a glorious selection of colorful paints, a variety of intriguing brushes, and flowers all around you for inspiration. Which situation do you think would create the better work? Take the pressure off. You are still YOU even without the weight pressure. You will still WANT to do what’s healthy for yourself… probably more so without the pressure of the results and instead a focus on what feels good and what is most loving for yourself. Sometimes that may be the salad, sometimes that may be a delicious cup of ice cream (which I promise will be way more satisfying when it isn’t followed by guilt and regret). It doesn’t matter. Live with love and let your heart guide you to your best. **Create a masterpiece today**


More about making peace with our selves, our lives, and each area of it: http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/09/world-peace-day-make-peace-with.html

LOVE YOURSELF to where you want to be!!!

I’ve got an IMPORTANT message- this has been coming up A LOT lately.

**I cannot stress enough how important it is to LOVE yourself to where you want to be rather than self-hating/shaming/guilting yourself to where you want to be!** I can PROMISE you that the added stress and pressure and negative emotions that the latter thought process causes is counterproductive to your health and happiness. Loving yourself right where you are does not mean you are throwing in the towel on the healthy changes you want to make- what it DOES mean is that you constantly shower yourself with love and acceptance while still evaluating how you can be kinder to yourself and create healthier habits. The THOUGHT PROCESS must be healthy too in order for it to show up in the physical form! And isn’t it wonderful to know that there’s someone that will ALWAYS be there for you and ALWAYS have your back 100% and will ALWAYS love and accept you know matter what?? Yep, and that person is YOU!! While it’s WONDERFUL to have a loving support system, it is also IMPERATIVE to work on loving and accepting yourself exactly the way you are, right now, at this very minute. Take a moment to APPRECIATE all that your body is doing for you! No matter what you do to it or what you put into it, it is digesting, breathing, keeping your heart beating, moving your eyeballs right now as you read this, and YES, your body is your biggest cheerleader!! LOVE IT BACK!!

Admittedly, this has not been my best summer for healthy habits. Between my birthday, several trips, and normal summer busyness, I’ve indulged quite a bit. But just because I’m working towards getting stronger, improving my endurance, and feeling more health and vitality, does not mean I can’t appreciate this awesome life and self I have right in the here and now!! If you’re struggling with this, think of someone less fortunate than you in their health or life circumstances that would give anything to be where you are. If that helps, start by appreciating your self and your life and your body for them first THEN slowly, over time, move into loving you for your own sake!!

If you base your self-love on how you look or a number on the scale, then your happiness at any given point in time will always be dependent on whether you are or are not at that point. So make the decision NOW that you will love yourself and have your back no matter what!!! It is truly as simple as that… just DECIDE!!! Throw out your cares of what anyone else might think (because anyone who does not love you unconditionally is not worth it anyway!) and know that no matter what, YOU have your back!! YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!!

I did a follow-up to this post that can be found here: http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-follow-up-about-self-love-and-weight.html

Might as well do what sets your soul on fire!!

Every profession in the world gets judged:

If you are a teacher, you will inevitably be judged for being too strict, or not strict enough or giving too many tests

If you are a doctor, you will be judged by the patient who is in denial about the weight they need to lose, or you will be judged because you can't save every person

If you are a healer or meditation guru, you get judged for being hokey or "too positive"

If you are successful in business, you will be judged for being too greedy

If you are professional athlete, you get judged for making too much money or for dropping the ball

If you are a celebrity, you will be judged by your appearance or who you are dating or the awards you failed to take home

If you are the president, you get judged for... everything

If you are a yoga teacher, you will be judged for not having a "real job"

If you are an author, you will be judged for that book that flopped

I could go on and on. Every profession will be judged at some point or another by people who are unhappy with their own circumstances or simply because as humans, we all have our own unique set of values and experiences and opinions! But instead of fearing judgement, focus on doing what you love and serving the world! If you're going to be judged regardless, might as well get it for doing something that sets your soul on fire!!!

I need to take a second to brag about YOU!!

On social media these days, I see a LOT of people posting about haters. My heart goes out to them. It really does. NOBODY should ever be made to feel like less than the awesomeness that each and every person inherently is and I commend them for standing strong despite any negative feedback. But I must say that the other thing that comes to mind when I see these types of posts is how GRATEFUL I am to have such incredible friends, family, social media friends, and networks who have been nothing but supportive- not just with my coaching journey but who have supported me my whole life. I’m not just talking about close friends and family, I’m literally talking about EVERY SINGLE ONE of you on here. If you’re reading this, I’m talking to YOU! And I thank you.

I’m not saying that every person has to like me or agree with me- we all have our own opinions on lots of different topics and I LOVE that! That’s what makes us UNIQUE! But can I just pause for a second and say how incredible you all are for doing what you do?! I literally don’t know that I’ve EVER gotten any kind of “hater” message before (I did get one really bizarre comment on one of my youtube videos once from a stranger but literally before I could even report it to Youtube, other complete strangers had stepped up and were sticking up for me all through the comment thread on the video, which I actually thought was really cool that I got to see and experience… “look for the helpers,” Mr. Rogers says). I respect all of your opinions but you’re all either super supportive or kind/polite enough to at least not talk down on anything I’m doing. And that’s why I love you all! You’re all too busy rocking your own awesome stuff in life to bother with nay-saying anyone else!!!

So to literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON reading this- my friends, my family, my beachbody supporters, and my peeps that NEVER WANT TO HEAR THE WORD BEACHBODY AGAIN haha- I LOVE YOU ALL TO PIECES!! And I appreciate each and every single one of you for being kind, classy, compassionate, supportive, encouraging, incredible souls!!! All ships rise with the tide and you all sure know how to make the tide rise! Keep on rocking with all the awesome stuff that YOU all are doing too!!

CHEERS TO YOU ALL!!!



Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach. 

Stress, worry, dreams, and sleep

I get a lot of incredibly sweet comments and messages about how positive I am and my outlook on life, and while I absolutely appreciate those messages and do my best to see the brighter side of life and the best in other people, I also intend to be fully real with you guys when life gets tough in the hopes that if you can relate to this, that you don't feel alone and that you perhaps you may also be able to find comfort in what helps me.

Let me start by saying that I can be very laid back and light about most things, but I can also be very high-strung/high anxiety about other things. I can immediately tell when I'm stressed/anxious/down about anything that that starts coming out in 2 ways: 1. I worry more about things that don't normally bother me (finances, for example) and have a more lack-focused mentality than I normally do; and 2. my sleep is either very restless or I start having crazy, stressful nightmares or incredibly emotionally-draining dreams. The past week or so, my dreams have been absolutely insane to the point that I wonder how my brain even conjured up such horrible dreams/thoughts. Or like last night, I spent the whole night dreaming about horrible emotional situations to the point where I've had to spend a good chunk of my morning so far processing and dealing with the residual stress of it.

So for the first issue (lack mentality, other surface fears), my strategy is to go into what's bothering me (it also helps to remember that these fears and worries aren't REAL, it's just stress making itself heard in whatever way it can). If I just push it away, it keeps nagging me with either lack-based thoughts or just a chronic low-level anxiety and icky feeling. I need to sit down and journal to get to the root of what's bothering me. I KNOW we are busy people, but TRUST ME, it is worth the 5 minute time investment to deal with the problem so that you can move on with your day in a much more effective way (not to mention that YOU and your emotional health are WORTH IT)!! I created this method I call a "fear-crusher list" a long time ago for my beachbody customers and coaches. It's a technique that I use for everything and helps me a TON:

As for dreams and emotional stress, this excerpt from Teal Swan's, "The Sculptor in the Sky" ALWAYS makes me feel better. I've re-read it a couple times this morning already :)

So no matter what you are going through, whether that be big emotional tough stuff or just the day-to-day stress of life, remember that YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Sending you all HUGE HUGS today!!

Love, Katelyn

Focus on the things that work out better than anticipated!!

On any given day, there are at least a million things I could worry about. I am by no means perfect at not living in fear, but I have gotten a lot better. I did a pretty good job of not worrying about my career future when I knew my job at my old company was in jeopardy. Instead, I threw myself full-force into coaching on the side and I honestly couldn’t have imagined a better outcome in the end. I was sad to see my engineering job go but I find my coaching job absolutely so fulfilling and rewarding and love that I get to help people every single day. That really was an experience that taught me to trust the process, especially since there was no way I could have planned for or foreseen how beautifully things would have worked out (3 years ago I never even knew about this coaching opportunity)!!

I had a similar experience today with something on so much of a smaller scale that it was laughable but it really is a lesson we can apply to all things. I had to make a phone call about an order I recently placed. I was dreading this call because I thought they mischarged me for something and I was anticipating having to argue and negotiate to get my way. I was frustrated that THEY had made a mistake and *I* would have to waste my precious time correcting it. But I said a little prayer asking the universe for assistance with working this out and made the call determined to be super kind to the person on the other end knowing that we both could work together on this. Well as it turns out, not only was *I* in the wrong about it (they had absolutely charged me correctly), but they ended up waiving a shipping fee just to be extra courteous and I was super grateful! So not only was it faster and easier than I thought, it also had a way better outcome than I could have even anticipated!

I’ve learned over my past 30 years that most of the things we worry about never end up coming to fruition. Often things turn out even better or easier than expected. And occasionally, not-so-good things, some that we never saw coming end up happening, and we deal with those when the time comes. Fear can consume us if we let it. It helps me to remember that the universe has my back and is supporting me step by step. It helps to remember we always have help and support from those who care about us (especially if we’re not afraid to ask)! It helps remembering that some of these perceived “bad things” are some of our greatest learning tools of all. It helps to trust the process and do my best to live fearlessly knowing that things are always working for our greatest good. And of course it helps a TON remembering things like this that worked out better than I could have even foreseen! *FOCUS ON THE THINGS THAT WORK OUT BETTER THAN ANTICIPATED!!!* and **JUST TRUST** Easier said than done, I know, but we can all work on it :)

What feels good to your soul?

All the spiritual teachers I follow were talking all week about the new energy being brought in by the new moon in Aries. I knew the official time for this was 2:57pm yesterday (and it was an absolutely GORGEOUS day!) so I decided to head to the park and have my own little celebration of sorts. I went to the park, sat under the trees, journaled intentions I wanted to set for this new phase, put on some music, did yoga, read, and just enjoyed the feel of my bare feet on the fresh, green grass. It honestly felt like food for my soul. I could feel complete conviction in my intentions, power in this new energy, and so full of love and knowingness that all is working out. We are stepping into a new phase and I am ready to step into my higher truth and higher self like never before. Talk about feeling your vibration raise!!!

Whether you believe in these astrological energies or not, I think it always feels good to find a reason (even if it's just a sunny day!) to set some new intentions, feed your soul, and raise your energy. I'd love to hear about what intentions and celebrations you're creating!

Love, joy, and blessings to you!

My theme for 2015, How I want to FEEL

I started this practice back in November of 2014 and I've already been seeing the wonderful effects of this. I wrote out a statement about how I want to FEEL (I actually wrote a few versions of this). I have it in the front of my binder and I read it regularly. It immediately makes me feel reassured and at ease. The first paragraph on this page is one of the versions:

When I originally wrote this statement, I had trouble saying "I *am* someone who trusts the universe completely." I know affirmations are "supposed" to be written in the present tense but if something doesn't resonate as truth to me, I scrap it and rephrase it to be something more believable. But the interesting part is, the more I read this, the more I really feel like I AM someone who trusts the universe completely and doesn't get hung up on disappointments, and smiles knowing they are all part of the plan. If I can see these kind of changes in 2 months of this practice, I can only imagine what an entire year can do!

I made a video explaining more about this process with examples of other things I wrote. There are 2 parts (my memory card maxed out during the first one). I hope these are helpful! Here's to 2015 being an incredible year full of things more amazing than we ever could have conceived of!!! 

Part 1:

Part 2:

Happy 2015!!

Love,

Katelyn

Hope for anyone going through a rough time

*This post is for anyone who has ever dealt with any kind of anxiety, depression, or general feeling of feeling down or lost or not like themselves. Sorry it turned into such a long one but I didn’t want to leave out any details that may help someone who needed to hear that specific thing. I hope the story I am about to share with you helps!

*********************************

Hi everyone! I wanted to fill you in on some things that have played an important role in my life over the past couple of years in shaping the person I am today. I know a lot of you probably know a lot of the pieces of this story but I didn’t realize until I was in Gatlinburg, TN a few weeks ago sharing my story at our coach retreat that probably not many people know the full story and how it’s all kind of come full circle and I wanted to share it for anyone who can possibly relate and maybe give some hope to anyone who is struggling or going through a tough time in their life.

So as many of you know, I was VERY stressed back in 2011/2012 when I was doing a lot of traveling for work but you may not know how down it had me and I may not have let on how deeply it affected me. I generally live my life as an open book (as many of my beachbody customers and coaches know, I am NOT afraid to share when I am struggling, when I’ve missed workouts, when I’m behind on my business and messages- like right now- or when I’m just plain in a little bit of a funk). But in this situation, it was a little different. It was very tough for me to talk about without getting very emotional and quite frankly, I often times didn’t WANT to think about it more often than I already was. And it’s not like anything terrible was actually happening to me so I think there was a self-imposed guilt factor in terms of complaining about an opportunity that most people would be grateful for. Plus my anxiety was so bad at times that I wasn’t necessarily thinking rationally about the support I know I could have had all along if I had been more open about how stressed I was.

On the surface, I felt like I had a dream job. I always always loved working for my company (I was an engineer was a medical device start-up company). I loved my coworkers, I loved and believed so strongly in our product, and I was excited that my role within the company changed frequently enough to give me a lot of experience in a lot of different areas. So when my boss asked me if I’d be willing to take a role traveling internationally to Germany, Austria, and a few other places in Europe to help with our clinical trials, surgeon training, and product launch, I jumped at the opportunity. I was also told in this role that I may even be moving to Germany temporarily (6 months to a year) if the need arose. They knew I loved to travel (I was infamous at my company for always paying to extend my trips during conferences to take advantage of the sightseeing) so everyone, including me, thought this would be a great fit for me.

It only took me a few trips to realize that this was not at all what I had expected. The stress of navigating foreign countries alone; figuring out language barriers, train systems, and driving rules; and having limited to no contact with my family and friends at home (limited internet, expensive phone charges, and even the time difference made it all hard to feel connected or supported) made it stressful as-is. But there were so many ways I felt like I was being pulled out of who I was as a person and my normal personality, like having to deal with sleazy sales guys essentially trying to throw me at the surgeons for their own business benefit was awful. Can I handle myself in situations like that? Yes, absolutely. I learned very quickly the importance of setting clear boundaries even in situations where a normal person would assume they should not be necessary (thank you Michael Nilo- I will never forget our convo about this and the advice you gave me). I also learned how to be very authoritative when a distributor we were working with over there continued to make it very difficult to get our job done because of his own ego and need to appear one way in front of the surgeons and another way behind the scenes.

Long story short, this all made me feel completely out of my element. I need MEANING and CONNECTION and AUTHENTICITY and the whole world of this job felt so fake and icky and disconnected and unawakened.

The more I did this, the more I fell into a deeper depressive state. I was constantly having to be away from my friends and family. And for what? To be in this world where I didn’t feel good at all? Even when I was at home, I could never really enjoy it because I was always either trying to gain a grip after the last trip or prepping for the next one. I felt lost and I definitely did NOT feel like myself. Every morning when I would brush my teeth, I almost always cried when I looked in the mirror. I didn’t recognize myself. I didn’t recognize the hollow, blank look in my eyes. I didn’t recognize the stress I was carrying in my forehead lines. I didn’t recognize the lost, empty look of a face void of a smile for months. I could see pain written into every feature on my face.

It was hard for me to want to be around friends and family because I just felt sad all of the time. Even when the traveling finally started to dissipate, the anxieties I had picked up during that time lingered on. I all of a sudden had weird social anxieties that had developed somewhere along the way- for example, if I was going to go out with friends, I had to have a way to leave whenever I wanted in case I started to feel sad. I ended up telling a lot of my friends this and I was SO GRATEFUL for all of their support during this time. But it was still hard. I didn’t enjoy a lot of the things I used to (which made me feel worse because it made me feel like something was WRONG with me). I still to this day carry on a lot of the control factors I developed while traveling- I ALWAYS need to be the one to book my flight, to pick the location/duration of layovers, I never check a bag (one less thing I have to rely on someone else for). Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these travel habits serve me well but at the time when they formed, it wasn’t just for travel efficiency- it was for a desperate sense of control in a life where I felt like I had none.

The crazy part is, there was SO MUCH GOOD that came out of this. It was what led me into so many of the personal development books and spiritual development that have made me a happier and more positive person than ever (eventually). It was during this time that I read “Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsh, Wayne Dyer’s “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life” (Hay House is now one of my favorite publishing companies, which has led me to majority of my favorite authors), a simple but extremely uplifting book called “The Energy Bus” by Jon Gordon, “New Psycho-Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz, and was led to a website called High Existence by my always enlightening friend, Diego Andrade, which opened up a pandora’s box for other self-help and self-empowerment internet resources. This new awareness finally started to break me of my automatic negative thought cycles and gave me a new focus and goals and purpose. I became mildly obsessed with doing my best to improve my thought pattern.

I also had spent a TON of time while in the midst of this depression thinking about what I would want to do if the stress became too much and I had to quit my job. I made a TON of lists about what had made me the happiest in life, what I felt most passionate about, times in my life when I felt the most satisfied and effective, etc. I thought about starting my own charity (only thing that stopped me was that I didn’t have a specific cause that I could focus on). I started volunteering a lot. I LOVED my time spent tutoring and helping with the family program at Light of LIfe. And this all eventually led me to discover the Beachbody coaching opportunity, which was absolutely PERFECT for me. Looking back, it incorporated every single one of the things that I had written down on my lists and completely nailed all of the things that made me happiest (helping people, health and fitness, showing people their self-worth, helping people work through their own fears and blocks). AND, I could do it while traveling if need be since it was all online (there wasn’t much else I could commit to at that time because I never knew when I’d have to go away again). AND, if I had been upset that day and maybe it was a day where I had been crying or wouldn’t have wanted to venture out into public, it didn’t stop me from going on facebook (nobody can see a puffy face through a computer screen!) and doing my best to help the people I was working with or create even more meaningful relationships with them.

The coaching was actually the first thing that started to bring me out of my year and a half long depression. I finally started to feel like ME again. I felt good. I felt like I was making a difference. Additionally, I felt a sense of CONNECTION again. A connection to the people I was helping, a connection to my true self again, a connection to the universe and all the people and wonderful things in it, a connection to a higher power.

Fast forward to our Fit Family Network Coach Retreat a few weeks ago in Gatlinburg, TN. I was sitting with 50 of the most amazing, open, caring, accepting, supportive, encouraging, positive, incredible people I have ever met. Talk about feeling CONNECTED!! :) :)  I was sitting on a panel with fellow my fellow 1-star diamond coaches, Kelly Grignon, Sarah Roberson, and Sandy Tocci. Scottie Hobbs asked me a question about why I do what I do. He said I’m smiling all the time, bubbly- what makes me so happy about what I do? I told the story that I wrote about above of a time and place when I wasn’t so happy and how it got me to where I am today. Deciding to become a Beachbody coach has honestly been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve grown so much as a person and it has increased my spiritual expansion, self-belief, and belief that all things are working out for the best and for our greatest good beyond anything that I could have ever dreamed of. It sounds cliche’ when I say it, but the last 2.5 years of coaching have truly been life-changing.

An interesting thing happened when I got home from the retreat though. I realized that with all of the AMAZING stuff in my life (I am seriously BURSTING with happiness everyday), I remembered that I still have my emergency stash of Klonopin (anti-anxiety meds) in my purse. Even though I’ve probably only taken about 5 in the entire 2 years this all was going on, I’ve still kept them as a security blanket just in case I were to have some kind of awful panic attack. I realized that it’s finally time to let them go. I don’t need my security blanket anymore. I have a TON of people supporting me. I have never felt more connected and supported in my entire life. Not gonna lie, I did feel some mild resistance when I pulled them out of my purse but that’s just old habits and old brain patterns kicking in. There is no better drug than the love and support of my friends, family, fellow coaches, my beachbody customers, and all of the wonderful people in my life.

I wish I could tag all of my wonderful friends and family who have supported me through all of this; who have always supported me and who continue to support me with everything I do. You are all amazing. I feel SO LUCKY to have so many wonderful people in my life and I definitely would not be the person I am without your influence and support in my life. Not to mention, through all of this struggle, I have found within me the ability to feel connected no matter what, even when I am by myself. As Wayne Dyer would say, “you can never be lonely if you like the person you’re with when you’re alone!” And I do :)  My tool chest for feeling connected has grown exponentially: from Hay House conferences, to walks by the river, to a chat with Nikki, to a yoga class with Chelsea, to a call with my amazing life coach, to convos with my challengers, to laughing and joking with friends, to quality time with my family and playing with my sister’s puppy, to an incredible coach retreat in the beautiful smoky mountains with our fit fam, to dancing in my room by myself, I can ALWAYS get connected any time I choose to be. I’m pretty sure that is one of the greatest skills and lessons I could learn in life.

For anyone who can relate to this story in any way, please please PLEASE don’t hesitate to reach out to me for love and support. Now, more than ever, I believe that ANYTHING can be worked through with love and support. Sending love to all of you, always.

Love,

Katelyn

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.