90dayPUSH

I am proud to announce that I've joined the #fitfam! :-)

First I want to mention Instagram. The main reason I use Instagram frequently (more than Facebook these days) is that I can follow who & what I want - and this translates to numerous fitness professionals, healthy recipe ideas, motivation, encouragement, progress tracking, and feedback. For me, the news feed has been a way for me to wake up every morning and get energized. It is such a convenient way to keep track of a day, or capture a moment and immediately "photoblog" it. I love that a lot of fitness-minded individuals have used it not only to track their daily progress, but help encourage others who are also on their own difficult journeys.

One of the people I follow there is Ciara Gale. She is beautiful and very fit. She's very inspiring not just in the physical sense, but she is one who encourages love, which she does easily with her big heart. You can find her on Instagram, or Facebook, or even her own website, CIARALE.COM.

While she is a personal trainer, she offers a program called 30dayPUSH. For a much more in-depth description, and even for sign up, you can go here.The goal is accountability, tracking, and progress. PUSHers must "phototrack" every day for 30 days, no matter how you feel that day. If you worked out, great. If you gorged on crappy food all day, and have developed a food baby, you still have to phototrack.

We (the PUSHers in the #fitfam) all are to update on the website with our photo for the day. It's a great way to motivate each other and keep yourself from falling out and giving up on your goals. People who fail to track get removed from the program, and this is so that everyone is accountable and removes any negativity or lack of motivation from the group. This is done in conjunction with keeping a daily fitness journal that Ciara provides as well. One must "push" to meet goals every day. These goals can either be 1) a customized training/nutrition plan she provides or 2) your OWN outlined plans and goals. Everyone gets to set a "focal point" for the day which does not necessarily have to relate to fitness or nutrition. Example: if you wanna be nice to at least one person for that day, or read a book, you can make any of those your focal points.

I am doing #2 - I am coming up with my own goals, nutrition plans, and exercise protocol. I will provide that syllabus in a separate post, which is going to be after this one. The point stands, I must push to meet all my goals, whether pre-determined or self-created (which will be the case with this PUSHer).

But, while the norm is a 30-day program, 30dayPUSH VII will be a 90-day program. March, April, May. So lots of phototracking is going to happen soon.. this Friday, in fact.

I'm excited to be doing this and becoming part of the #fitfam because I'm primarily alone in my fitness journey. Yes, this is first and foremost for me (something I have never dared to declare in the past). Yes, I have great followers on Instagram. I have people in my life who encourage me at home. Yet it is fundamentally different when you actually meet others who are going through the same pathways and hardships as you are, more or less.

I admit, it is quite difficult to motivate myself every day, all by myself, but once you determine that you want something with all your heart, finding that motivation is not impossible, if not actually easy to acquire.

I can't wait!! :-)