Keri McKibbin Personal Training

Monday is recovery day for many after the weekend, that’s how most people look at it anyway.Giving yourself some great care is in order and doing the things we know that are good for us.

It’s the best healing we can give ourselves, and the reality is if we can’t look after ourselves well, then how will we be able to look after others that rely on us in life?We know exercise can be hard, but the pay off is significantly more than the initial discomfort of starting.

We know that if we eat rubbish after that session, we will be wasting a lot of that hard work, we won’t recover as well and again we won’t feel so well, so having enough good for in the house is down to enough good planning, and if a takeaway appears on a monday night in your house, then you aren’t really “getting” what it means to be fit and healthy.

Monday is the day when you send out a massive statement that you need to be fit and healthy, you need to be strong for yourself and others, you need to find the time to get a great workout in, you need to get to bed early to recover, and set yourself up for a great tuesday and week to come.You need to have that plan and the power of intention is immense, because once all that good stuff gets done, you soon start to feel so much better, and you get that positive momentum in your life JUST when you need it.

Going into winter used to scare me, especially when I started coaching people and I start fitting them in early morning slots.

Exactly now is when the weather changes…for the worse.October with high winds, rain, cold and dark nights do nothing for your courage to get out there in the great outdoors and do something.When I run with someone first thing in the morning, I thought how was I going to do it, how was I going to remain enthusiastic, how was I going to get up that early every day?

Then a pattern emerged. It was ONLY dark for a short time in my mornings.

Then the sun would rise around 7am and very latest 8am at the worst time of year.Physiological changes happened to my body after the first run, I felt better by the end of it, chemical changes were happening to my brain, my worry turned to smiling because I kept on conquering my fears by simply getting out there and DOING things.

I also started asking myself different questions, and conditoning my body but most importantly my mind.

Someone was asking me to be at his house 530am, earliest I ever did was 430am (at the house), so I should be honoured to be asked, and suddenly my mental approach changed from being scared a little but, to owning the situation and taking charge and thinking how lucky I was.I realised the saying “it’s always darkest before dawn” was really true literally, and seeing the morning break every day was really incredible, coupled with the chemical changes in my brain literally changed the way I looked at my day, and indeed my life and the fortunate position I was in.

I urge you to see the good in your seemingly difficult situations, give it your best and ask different questions and see how lucky you really are, you will become a brand new person because of it.The weather will take away your ambitions if you let it, and IF you stay in the house all the time too afraid to have a go in life.

The weather is only temporary but your daily decisions can make or break your future and your right now, I believe in you to see it through this time and reap the incredible benefits.

The definition of being courageous and being a hero is the person who keeps showing up to train even when failure, pain and giving up is the easiest course of action. I can name a lot of you in that.

We have multiple distractions too, we have “other” ways of feeling good now too, we have social media posts we can do in 2 minutes which boosts our dopamine in our brains to feel good (at least for a few minutes), we have an abundance of places where we can get sugary treats in food form and liquid form, which again boosts our brains greatly for around 30 minutes.

The downside of these though is the inevitable “low” comes soon enough and can send us into an even deeper form of worry, anxiety and even cement a period of depression in our lives.

This stage is desperately calling out for us to be the hero in our story. The chips are down, long days of not feeling good with little on the horizon to perk us up, the sugar and social media being tiny boosts on days we have forgotten how to feel good and be proud with our efforts in life.

However you think we got here on earth, I don’t believe for one minute we were meant to feel that bad, and spend our days living with what may or may not happen in life.

Our mission is not about having loads of money because that won’t being happiness short or long term, it’s not about being a Henry 8th type character feasting on endless buffet’s of food and drink that will eventually lead us to ill health and an early grave, and it’s definitely not about the shallowness of relying on likes on social media to “save us”.

We are here to do, to serve others, to make a difference in people’s lives, to boost our our own moods and others’ moods by our actions in the face of adversity. 

Got it bad today? I can tell you at least a few others who got it worse than you, but maybe doing MUCH more with their days, because they know the choice they have is making the MOST of the cards they have been dealt, and not moaning about it or hiding in a dark place until “someone saves us”.

I urge you to be the hero you know you can be, to do great things, to say I’m not taking mediocrity anymore, I’m not taking a life of saying “the world is against me” anymore, because when you try, the world tries its best to SUPPORT YOU to do great things IF you are willing to stick with it, look after yourself and change your environment, because the lens you see the world makes the difference between a life of anxiety, worry and doubt, and a life of embracing challenge, embracing the unknown at times if it leaves to fresh opportunity, all in the name of creating a more satisfying, more fulfilling life for you and the family you need TO LEAD.