Just over a year ago I made the decision to workout. More than just once or twice a week, I was going to exercise every day for lent. I said I was doing it for Jesus, but He and I both knew it was really because I was tired of breathing with my mouth open. At the time, I needed to take a serious approach to exercising as my physical fitness was getting bad, rapidly. Plus, I couldn’t fit into my clothes and walking around without my skirts fully zipped was getting old fast.

Being tired of being tired, I disciplined myself to workout every day for forty consecutive days. How did I do it? Simple: I just did it, even when I didn’t feel like it I got to it. I did any moving activity I enjoyed from boxing to jogging. In the process, the pandemic hit and not being able to go to the gym allowed me to discover yoga and biking. While the game plan was to stop after the fortieth day, fifty days sounded much better. Then once I hit my fiftieth day I figured that if I could do that once then I could do it twice. Once I hit my hundredth day of working out consecutively, I had a Forrest Gump moment and kept running. Almost literally as a 3 mile jog on an ordinary morning turned into a 20 mile jog for no other reason than to see if I could do it.

I did it.

As you read this, I’ve finished exercising on my 312^th day. There’s a solid chance that I followed a yoga video or maybe struggled with my usual routine that includes a set of 150 sit ups with a 20lb weight. I’m not perfect, sometimes I hate working out, and I haven’t dropped all the weight, but I show up and I continue and for me that’s what matters. I don’t tell you about my 2020 workout plan to brag. In fact, I’m saying in almost disbelief that I did it to begin with. I say this because if I – the girl who would run out of breath while sitting at her laptop – can choose to work out then you can too if that’s where your heart is. Maybe the idea of a “new you” isn’t the most encouraging, but the idea that you could propel yourself to a better and even happier you could be what does it. Heck, that’s what did it for me.

Making the choice to workout in 2020 has changed so much about my life. The obvious was that I’ve improved the things I eat, increased my flexibility, and my health is in a better place as a result. I lost 20 pounds, I can fit my clothes better, and my breathing isn’t as labored since I’m no longer falling asleep with my bedtime Kit Kat bar. The surprising part was I’ve increased my discipline immensely and accomplishing such a feat has motivated me to go after other goals. Working out every day for almost a year has pushed me towards addressing my fears head on. I’ve learned how to swim, I got over my fear of Chucky, I am working on my fear of spiders, and it all connects to my exercise goal. Realizing I could do workout every day for over 300 consecutive days led me to question what else I could do and find out who I could become.

Looking at exercising in 2021, I can say my new year goals are pretty much the same as my fitness goals in 2020. I plan to:

• Workout daily,
• Improve my flexibility,
• Lose this last 15 pounds,
• Meditate (good old mental exercise), and
• Complete 75 hard (at least once).

As we start the first week of 2021 and the notion of a “new year, new you” comes at you from all directions, maybe change up the words to: “new year, better you”. Starting with this exercise perspective can lead you to imagine all of the ways your life can be positively impacted. You may end up getting healthy, falling into a better shape for yourself, increasing your self confidence, and/or seeing more possibilities for yourself. If I was able to drop some weight and became intrepid along the way, just think who you can grow to be along the way too.

Ready for the new year? Have 2021 goals that you’re excited about? Leave them in the comments so I can cheer you on!