I love how when you set out on a journey you have certain expectations about how things might pan out. I love it even more when your expectations are exceeded! So 30-days ago I began my challenge to complete 45-minutes of Pilates for 30-days in a quest to fix my body. You can read about all my reasons why in my previous post “30-days to a better body”
So here are my top 3 key learnings from my month of Pilates
1. Having a goal and making that goal public is absolutely the best way to stay committed to actually achieving it!
We all have those days, you know the type when getting out of bed is even a chore. You’re tired, low on energy and exercise is the last thing on your mind. Well guess what, I have those days too. This last month one day in particular stands out in my mind. I was up at 4am (a ridiculous ungodly hour) in order to catch a 6am flight to Sydney. My day in Sydney consisted of a conference where I sat on my bum for 9 hours straight. Now since I spend a lot of my day standing and moving around this was an absolute chore for me. At 6pm, Joe and I dragged our bags across town, caught a train to the hotel and had dinner in the restaurant in the hotel. At about 9:30pm we were in the room just about ready to curl up in bed and go to sleep (as we still had another 3 days of conference ahead of us) when I suddenly realised I hadn’t done my Pilates for the day… Knowing that I had publicly committed to this goal and knowing that I would have many people at the studio asking if I had achieved it, was enough motivation to get me up out of bed and completing a Pilates sessions in the confines of our room. It was a great feeling getting into bed 45-minutes later knowing that I was still on track.
2. Committing to a consistent exercise program makes you want to exercise even more
Looking back it was the first week of the challenge that I found the hardest. My body was sore and ached from the previous days effort. It took at least a week and maybe even 10 days to get a real feeling of ‘flow’ happening. During week 2 my body began moving better, I felt stronger and everything felt easier. I started searching for ways to make exercises more challenging and even though I’ve been teaching Pilates for the past 13 years I surprised myself by coming up with new unique ways of doing some of the older, more mundane exercises. I also ‘invented’ some new exercises on the reformer. Hell I was having fun!
By week three I had added back a couple of runs and Group PT (HIIT sessions) to my weekly exercise program and I managed to transition to these without as much DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) as I may have experienced previously. Yip I think I might just be addicted to the ‘happy hormones’ that are released during exercise: “Hi, I’m Vicky and I’m an exercise addict… and proud of it”
3. Making positive changes in one area of your life has a flow on effect to other areas
After an extremely busy period at Acacia Health I had allowed myself to slip into some bad habits. With the development of Eat Play Love and the need to get content for members up online in a timely fashion, I found myself sitting at the computer for way too long each day. I was skipping meals, going to bed too late and neglecting my own needs. This past month of committing to a regular Pilates routine has allowed me to re-focus on my personal health and fitness goals and set some boundaries to create a better work-life balance. I’m feeling happier, more fulfilled and in control.
Thanks for following my journey. If you’re interested in your own “30-day Pilates challenge” let us know. We have a few ideas up our sleeves and we’ll let you know about them in the not to distant future.
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