21 Day Workout Challenge Recap and Sign Up for June 11th Cycle
We just finished our first ever 21 Day Workout Challenge!!!! YAY! Our goal with this challenge was to shift our relationship with working out from a negative place to a more balanced and positive one by committing to 30 minutes of physical activity each day for 21 days. It was incredibly inspiring to see so many women join us and make the commitment to self-care and sharing the good and bad days. Having a community of women that not only share your same beliefs about health and wellness but are also willing to encourage, support, and do the work with you was extremely fulfilling and more rewarding than I had expected.
Take a look at some of these awesome photos of women who posted their workout photos over the past 21 Days!
I personally have always struggled to be consistent with working out. I would do great for a week and then not workout for two! Then a month would go by and I would start up again and repeat the cycle. I realized I had some toxic subconscious feelings about working out that were sabotaging my health and wellness. This challenge means something different for everyone who participates. For me, I have been doing the work mentally to reprogram years of playing competitive sports and being forced to workout as a form of punishment vs. optimal health and wellness. One basketball coach in specific comes to mind. We would have to do our team warm up shooting drills and he would count the missed shots of the entire team. That number was the number of sprints we had to do at the end of practice. I understand now, as an adult, how harmful that form of leadership was for me personally. It wasn't encouraging or empowering it was fear based coaching and that is exactly what it caused me; fear and anxiety. The 21-day challenge was an awesome experience for me to workout on my terms and to make myself a priority on the days I simply wouldn't have. I know that it will be a long road to build a new relationship with working out that is not tainted by my past relationship but with commitment and support, anything is possible.
The truth is, our personal relationship to health is a complicated one that is intertwined with our body image and self-value. I get frustrated when I see body positive accounts dissing people who have made healthy changes in their lives and portray the idea that losing weight in any form is somehow conforming to "diet culture." That is an equally harmful message to be sending because each one of us has a natural healthy weight that fits our body's design. When we are at that healthy weight our bodies can operate optimally. As a result, our overall health is improved for our mind, body, and spirit. That to me is the definition of body positive and I think we should start to look past the videos on Instagram of girls dancing in their underwear, posing in bikini pictures, or bending over to grab a stomach roll, and begin to define how we are being body positive each day with our actions, thoughts, and words we speak to ourselves and others. This challenge helps to get you in motion and working towards a healthy realistic goal. We can do anything for just 30 minutes.
If you want to join us for our next 21 Day Challenge starting June 11th make the commitment by signing up to join our team. We will be sending you email updates, featuring you on our social media, and we will be doing our first HNS 5k Color Run on June 23rd in Los Angeles, at the Stubhub Center. The Color Run, also known as the "Happiest 5k on the Planet," is a unique paint race that celebrates healthiness, happiness, and individuality. This is a super fun way for all of us to get together smack dab in the middle of our next challenge. We can encourage and support each other along the way which will give us the momentum we need to finish our challenge with a bang. We are all searching for the place where we fit. The place where we can connect with other women on a deeper level. That place is here! Sign up below.
