What I Learned from My 30 Day Little Black Dress Challenge
If you have been following my Instagram stories, you will have seen my LBD (Little Black Dress) Challenge. I found this challenge on pinterest and decided to start in September. I went into the challenge thinking, “I will do my best. I will be consistent and I will try.” While I was trying to engage my competitive nature, I really wanted to see if I could be consistent. I hope to, going forward, include physical activity in all aspects of my life. This challenge let me know that I am more than capable and that time, is not really a factor on whether or not, I can do it. Which leads to my first realization.
· There is enough time.
As I was incorporating the LBD challenge, I was reading the book, “The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks. He spends a lot of time talking about Einstein time. In short, Einstein time is based on the fact that time comes from within us. The scarcity of time is only limited by ourselves. In other words, there is enough time. It all depends one how we choose to allocate our time. That was a major game changer for me. I have done a lot of work to remove scarcity mindset from my life. There is enough. Enough time, enough money, enough resources. So, with that understanding, I have reallocated my time to ensure that I can get at least the workout in and on the days I was not doing the challenge, I was getting in a walk.
· I am worthy, as it, without change, without exception.
I was watching a podcast, MrsKevOnStage, on youtube. She has a podcast called, The Love Hour where she talked about creating a campaign for herself on loving herself. She says it so much more eloquently than I can write it, but she used the above words as her mantra and said it to herself everyday. Many times, we think that we will be worthy once we finish or once we do something different. We are worthy just as we are. Just where we are. We do not have to do a 30 Day Challenge. We do not have to change a single thing about ourselves to be worthy. We are already worthy. This challenge helped me realize that, yes, I am worthy. I deserve 30 minutes of moving my body. It is important and I am worth taking that time.
· If you keep trying, you will get better.
Towards the end of the challenge, I was amazed as how my body improved. When I started, I was struggling to do a 20 second plank. Towards the end, I was able to hold a 50 second plank with little struggle. My tricep dips improved, my squats improved, every exercise I engaged in, I improved. At first I truly focused on keeping the form and completing the number required. Toward the end, my form was great and I was able to increase my number of reps without much difficulty. Daniel Tiger has it right. “Keep Trying. You’ll get better.”
· Kids watch what you do.
I knew this internally, but their reaction reinforced this idea. Towards the end, my daughter was asking about my workout and was joining in. This was not necessarily a goal of mine, but it sort of is. I want my kids to value moving their bodies and I want them to see their mom and dad as an example of how to live a healthy life. And while this was part of my thought process, it is not necessarily a goal. And it was a pleasant surprise to see them pay attention to what I was doing.
· Movement is medicine
Many Indigenous cultures have this concept of “medicine,” which is an idea that there is spiritual power or deep connection or strength. Our bodies are designed to move. We are supposed to move and our modern, sedentary lifestyle takes us out of our divine selves. This is far out and could move into a kind of hippie dippie territory but stay with me. By including movement and by moving outside, even though, it was just my backyard, there was an element of reconnecting. I was appreciative of my body and all that it can do. I was appreciative of the land and all that she provides. I was living in gratitude and reminded of that gratitude.
I am so grateful in the learnings that I have received and am ready to move my movement I have (no pun intended) to the next level. I have entered into a partnership with Upward Motion Fitness and Nutrition. Their mission is “Inspire others” That is what I would like to do bother with this blog and with my business. They focus on three pillars of success; fitness, nutrition, and accountability and I am excited to continue my journey.
I will continue to document this journey and the next 21 days in my Instagram stories. Make sure that you are following me on Instagram, @itsbrittanyschulman, so you can see for yourself.
Thank you for joining me!
