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BeachBody, Facebook, family, fit-spiration, friends, inspiration, memes, MFP, My Fitness Pal, support groups, support structure, T25, Weight Watchers, WW
One of the terms that I constantly see on the MFP message boards is “fit-spiration.” This is the thing or person that inspires you to want to become a more fit, healthy individual. What does this look like? Is it a saying? Is it a person? If it is a person, is it someone famous or someone that you know in your everyday life? Maybe it is a regular person that you’ve never met and never will.
My life is chalk-full of fit-spirational sayings and Facebook memes. I’ve shared dozens of them as pictures over the past few months. I’ll explain the two that keep me going right now. The first one is the banner head of my blog.
As I have continued to struggle, I remind myself how far I have come in a year, and even though I have been struggling, I don’t want to look back in a year and ask myself why I didn’t force myself back on track.
The second one is just fun!
So many times I become bogged down in the depression of reality. I’ll never be a super model or an Olympic athlete so why do I push myself so hard. Then I remind myself: THOSE AREN’T MY ULTIMATE DREAMS. My dream is to be healthy and happy. I want to feel and to look good in my clothes. I want to be comfortable in pictures and to not feel dumpy around my friends and family that I perceive to be more beautiful.
As motivational and as fun as both of those pictures are, I am truly inspired by the people in my world. I earlier mentioned being inspired by everyday people that I’ll never meet. Those three women are Candice McCain, Cecelia Parrish, and Kimberly Fritz. Candice and Cecelia lost significant amounts of weight using the Weight Watchers program. I became aware of Candice through her posts on the WW message boards, and Cecelia starred in her very own WW commercial. I was “introduced” to Kim through a friend of mine from high school. Stacy suggested that I join Kim’s FB support group, and now she is my BeachBody coach. All three are average women who worked to overcome their weight issues.
This is Candice. She used to have a FB Like page that I followed obsessively, but for some reason I can’t find it any more. She lost over half of her body weight through portion control and moderate exercise.
This is Cecelia. I inserted a hyperlink to her web page above. She inspired me because she just seemed so real in her commercials. After I started to read more about her story, I became even more inspired.
This is Kim, and she is truly inspiring to me on a daily basis. Kim is a mother to 3 young kids: a girl and twin boys. She has made fitness and living a healthy life her main priority and has recently had the opportunity to become a full-time stay-at-home mom while serving as a Diamond Coach for BeachBody. While we have never actually met in person, we have gotten to know each other through her FB support group I Never Regret… A Workout. Kim has always provided me with positive support and has never undermined my insecurities… even when I inundate her with countless questions. I inserted a hyperlink to her FB group page above.
Now that I’ve covered the people that I don’t know that have inspired me, let me tell you about the people in my everyday life that motivate me. These are people that I know personally, and THEY are the ones that have the greatest impact on my efforts.
First and foremost, I want to mention my mom. She has been my #1 cheerleader through every weight loss endeavor, and I don’t know what I would do without her. She is blatantly honest with me… even when I don’t want to hear it. My mom has struggled with her weight off and on throughout her entire life. She has lost and gained and lost and gained just like I have. I am proud to say that she has never given up. She is over 50 pounds down from her heaviest weight and is currently using MFP to track her exercise and calories. We check in with each other weekly to keep track of our progress, or lack thereof.
The second person in my life that provides me with daily motivation is my big brother. He has worked diligently during the last several months to drop a significant amount of weight and to lead a healthier lifestyle. One of the things that I appreciate about him so much is his honesty. He, too, is using MFP and exercise to lose weight. He has jokingly referred to calorie counting as starving and running as torture. He doesn’t love the process, but he is determined to be healthy so he sticks with it. To me, that is so refreshing.
I have mentioned in many of my previous posts some of my friends that have inspired me along the way. One of my oldest friends Melissa worked so hard to lose weight in the past. She started out on Atkins, but now she uses MFP to track her calories. She is an active mom of an almost pre-schooler and twin year-old daughters. Melissa inspires me because she never quits trying to remain in excellent shape while leading an extremely busy life.
My friend Kim is one the one that did T25 with me this year. Even though I already thought she looked perfect, Kim lost 26 pounds using WW and exercise. She just got married a week ago, and let me tell you she looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress (which had to be completely remade because she had lost so much weight on her tiny frame!).
Finally, one of my newest inspirations is my massage therapist Lacy. While I’m unsure of the specifics of her weight loss efforts, she has lost 50+ pounds and has dropped several jeans’ sizes. She is truly motivated to stay on track and that serves as more motivation for me!
I think it is vitally important in any weight loss or fitness effort to have “fit-spirations” to keep you going. I know I would have given up long ago if I didn’t have these amazing people in my life to keep me going.