The Mid-Thirties Fitness Funk

Something happened when I turned 35. It’s feels like my metabolism retired or something. Like it didn’t give any notice, it just walked in one day and was all; I quit. If metabolisms could talk mine said something like; “You know Courtney, I’ve done an average job of keeping you mildly in shape for the last 35 years and I’m pretty tired. I think I’m just gonna go now… bye girl.” And ever since that happened I’ve been in some kind of mid-thirties fitness funk. The struggle is REAL.

I thought when my daughter started kindergarten and my son started preschool in August that I would knock my socks off with my fitness dedication and work at home productivity. But instead, I’ve struggled to balance the kid-free time between work outs, building my Stella & Dot biz and marketing freelance projects. And let’s not forget this lovable little blog that received a much needed face lift in the last month! My attention has been split so many ways lately that I feel like I’m not doing anything all that well, and sadly my fitness motivation has tanked. I went from 5 work out days per week to maybe 1-2 — so cray. And on top of that, my clean eating gusto has been on life support since I began freelancing in April. These days I eat McDonald’s on the go, drink diet soda again after a YEAR of abstaining, and I phone it in at the gym. I’m basically blogging about this to hopefully give me some accountability to turn this Titanic around, damnit!

I’m a creature of habit when it comes to health and fitness. If I’m trying to eat better and do Weight Watchers or MyFitness Pal I tend to find what foods work within the points/calories I have and I eat the same thing all the time. After eating the same spinach salad 3-4 days per week over a 9 month period I put the fork down and haven’t eaten a spinach salad since. I can’t with spinach no mo. And that’s sort of how my work outs have been. I’m sick of the same ole stuff.

Fighting fitness boredom 

So I’m trying to mix it up. My friend has been loving this new semi-personal training gym she’s been going to and says she’s leaning out and losing weight, so I’m giving it a month long trial period. It’s individualized work out plans tailored to your fitness level and it’s basically strength training, similar to a cross fit gym, but a little different. I’m in week one now and so far so good. My mind is trained to think I need 35-45 minutes of cardio each day so minimal cardio is strange to me, but I’m going to test this strength training fitness plan out and see my results in a month. And I am going to try to eat healthy to give this trial period a good shot!

I’ve also discovered dance fitness videos on YouTube that I love and have fun doing. My main YouTube crush is The Fitness Marshall, which is hip hop dance fitness. The guy who does it is named Caleb and he is HILARIOUS, so I often find myself laughing at his humorous dialogue during the dances. I was so STOKED when I learned that The Fitness Marshall is doing a U.S. tour and he’s going to be in Indianapolis for a live class this Saturday!!! I’m wondering if I’m going to fangirl out when I see him!? On his event page he posted his Indy video playlist so we can practice the routines before Saturday. I did 5-6 dances this afternoon in my basement and it took me about 25-30 minutes and I was sweaty and spent! And we have 12 songs on the playlist to get through – yowza, I’m going to be exhausted when it’s over. My friend and I are definitely going to earn that bottle of wine after class!!

Check out The Fitness Marshall on YouTube here, and watch the Indianapolis video playlist for Saturday! Below is one of the dances I love because I can actually keep up with it for the most part, lol!

The moral of the story is that I’m going to fight this mid-thirties fitness funk I’m in. I will not give into that gradual 5-10 lbs annual weight gain and then one day look in the mirror and not recognize myself. I will change up my routine. I will reignite my clean eating dedication, and I will hold myself accountable! I’ve even considered creating a Facebook group for anyone else who also needs accountability and just have a daily check in, like; post daily successes, whether it be a great work out, or a healthy meal recipe… and hell, even something like I only had ONE glass of wine tonight instead of my usual two or three — I will celebrate the baby steps to greatness! Haha! Even if my mom and I are the only people in this group, it’s happening! 🙂

If any of you are similarly fighting a mid-thirties (or older!) fitness funk I hope this inspires you! Comment on what you are doing or going to do to fight the funk! Let’s support each other in our quest to lead a healthy lifestyle with a renewed sense of self-confidence!