Katelyn Lesk Health and Fitness: pressure

Monday, July 11, 2016

A reminder about course-correction and not being able to do it ALL

I posted these 2 pictures on social media recently. The picture from the Ab Challenge post (left) was from about a year ago. The picture in the blue sports bra (right) was from a few days ago, and whether you can tell or not, I’m actually about 10 pounds heavier currently than I was in the Ab Challenge picture.

Here’s the thing. I often hear people talking about how they’ve gained weight as if they’ve somehow “gone backwards” in their life progress. My philosophy is this: YOU HAVE NEVER GONE BACKWARDS! Impossible! I CHOOSE to believe I’ve never been better than I am today. And neither are you! And you know what else? We just keep getting better!!! With each new day comes more experience, wisdom, memories, and life lessons!

I might not be quite as fit as I was at this time last year but we HAVE to stop looking at this as an isolated category. I’ve grown light years in my own personal development, my business, and new friendships. I’ve gone on several amazing trips and made AMAZING memories! I saw 2 new countries in this past year. I joined a leadership group, a toastmasters group, and a business mastermind group. I’ve made incredible new friends and built upon the friendships of the awesome people already in my life. I’ve learned some good lessons and some tough lessons and I’ve GROWN because of it. I’ve been exposed to new experiences, connections, and opportunities. I’ve been able to coach more people than ever and hopefully have helped them see their OWN WORTH (which means more to me than anything)!! I’ve watched the Pens win and Stanley Cup and got to celebrate with the whole city! I’ve spent time in nature! I’ve spent quality time that I wouldn’t trade for the world with my family! I’ve tested my limits physically and tapped into my adventurous side. I’ve made mistakes, I’ve failed, I’ve learned, I’ve succeeded, I’ve EXPANDED! I’ve met new people who have given me new perspectives of life and what’s possible! I’ve done lots of great work on my health and my digestive system. I’ve read books and listened to countless hours of motivational personal development! I’ve expanded in my meditation and prayer practice and grown my faith because of it. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve had fun, I’ve made incredible memories, and I’ve been grateful about ALL of it!!

If you aren’t exactly where you want to be in your health and fitness, I want you to take a second to think about all the EXPERIENCES you’ve had, what you’ve LEARNED, and what you’re GRATEFUL for! A number on the scale pales in comparison to what really makes up a LIFE WORTH LIVING!!

Any time I feel a little too far off track with my health and fitness, I remind myself of these things that I’m grateful for. I also remind myself that it is OK TO NOT BE ABLE TO DO IT *ALL*! We HAVE to stop holding ourselves to that impossible standard then crumbling under the pressure then feeling guilty if we don’t succeed at being EXACTLY where we want in ALL areas of our lives. Let’s start being gentle with ourselves and loving ourselves right where we are! Then, once we are in that space of love, we can evaluate where we want to COURSE-CORRECT! In my book, it’s not about perfection. Sometimes I need to reel things in a little in certain areas of my life, let go of things in other areas of my life, and remind myself that I’m doing the best that I can. For example, after the Pens playoffs, I had to let go of eating at restaurants (and drinking wine) so frequently and focus a little more on my workout routine. Was it an extreme, drastic change? No. Just a little course-correction! If we’re gentle with ourselves, we can make this whole “life” thing EASY!

No matter where you think you’re at in life, remember, you’ve never been better! Keep on shining, rock star!!!!!!

Visit https://www.facebook.com/CoachKatelynLesk and http://beachbodycoach.com/katelynlesk for more info!

I would be honored to help you with your fitness 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

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Baby Steps: Releasing the Pressure

I ran into a childhood friend tonight at an art crawl (very chance meeting given that we don’t even currently live in the same city!) and after some light-hearted catch-up, I ended up in a side conversation with his husband, Paul. What I love about Paul is that he’s not afraid to dive into the deep stuff. Neither am I. We both value authenticity and the deeper connection that comes from being fearlessly vulnerable, even a few minutes into a conversation.

After some talk about my work as an online health and fitness coach, we got into some discussion about psychology, self-love, motivation, and the necessity of loving process of getting to a goal, whether that be losing weight or climbing the corporate ladder. In my work as a coach, I am a very big believer in baby steps. I will always favor long-term, sustainable lifestyle changes over anything extreme, controlling, or pressured. I believe we have to love ourselves at all stages of the process in order to reach our goals (especially if we want to stay there and potentially go beyond it). I don’t believe we can ever self-hate our way to a goal and actually be happy at the destination.

My personal strategies for creating this in my own health journey have been an evolving practice of gratitude for my body. I remind myself regularly that my body is my biggest cheerleader. Despite how active or not active I choose to be or how healthy or not-so-healthy my food is, it keeps my heart beating, my eyes blinking, my nervous system firing, and my fingers moving as I type this. Reminding myself of what my body actually does for me on a physiological level makes me WANT to take care of it. Before exercising (or more specifically, when I’m trying to work up the motivation TO workout), I remind myself of the things my body can do that people who suffer from physical disabilities cannot. There are people who WISH they had the capability to lift their arm up when their brain says to do so. During exercise, I focus on appreciating the feel of my muscles lengthening, my lungs expanding, or the pounding of my heart in my chest after an intense cardio move. It can be euphoric to feel connected to my body in that way. When it comes to nutrition, rather than spending all my emotional energy on limiting myself, I try to focus on what I can do to increase my intake of nourishing, alive foods. The feelings of restriction and guilt are replaced by freedom and vitality when I focus on putting the right stuff in rather than keeping the wrong stuff out.

It has taken years, but these baby steps and perspective shifts have added up. I still get off track but I know I am capable of getting back on track. I focus on reducing the frequency and duration of the time off track rather than beating myself up for not being perfect all the time. I give myself permission to ease back on track. And I can truly say now that I love the process of taking care of my body. To me, taking care of myself also includes my emotions so it’s important to me to be gentle with myself in the process.

Interestingly enough, I was able to apply these concepts tonight, even with this very post. Towards the end of our conversation, the ever-supportive Paul suggested I apply for an op-ed in the Huffington Post. My heart soared with his vote of confidence and I trust and believe his opinion that, “this message needs to be heard.” Whether it’s me writing it or someone else, I absolutely agree. We need more people in the world giving us permission to take the baby steps we need to get to where we’re going. In a world where high stress is valued as some form of success validation, there are nowhere near enough reminders to slow down, love the journey, and love where you’re at right at this very moment.

When I got home tonight, I sat down to write. I succeeded at applying the first part of my philosophy; I allowed myself to just be where I was at. I didn’t sit down with the intention to write an op-ed application to the Huffington Post; I sat down to write a blog post to whoever might need to read this message about baby steps. I reminded myself that it didn’t need to be perfect, I just needed to start somewhere; there was no downside to just writing what was on my heart. The problem was, there was a part of me still putting pressure on this. How many times do we tell ourselves this is our one chance to “get it right”?? I was having trouble connecting to my creativity or what was even on my heart because I was getting too caught up in perfect wording. I was trying to be something I’m not. Fortunately, Paul’s reminder that this message needs to be heard really stuck with me. I reminded myself that it’s about the MESSAGE, not about the perfect wording. I reminded myself that part of what was on my heart that I needed to speak about WAS the pressure we regularly put on ourselves without even realizing what we’re doing. Baby steps are about releasing the pressure to be perfect. They are about giving ourselves permission to meet ourselves where we are and do what we can right here in the moment. Tonight, that was an unedited, unperfected blog post. Instead of worrying about a perfect format; a great flow; or a clearly defined opening, point, supporting points, and clever wrap-up, I just wrote. So this was my stream of consciousness tonight. Thank YOU for meeting me where I was at. And I hope someone somewhere was helped by this reminder that it is OK to do only what we feel ready for, to release the pressure and overwhelm, and connect to what’s true for ourselves.

Our epic run-in at the art crawl :)