Welcome to the Mind + Body Elite blog.
As a Health & Fitness Coach I want you to feel inspired, motivated, confident and supported in your health & fitness journey. That is why I've created this health, fitness and nutrition blog – a place to share tips, tools, resources and more! From clean eating recipes to tips on sustaining motivation and busting through barriers we are here to empower YOUR healthy life, mind, body and spirit!
Realizing that we each face our own challenges, and for many of us stress has become a routine part of our daily lives I thought, why not lift each other up with inspiring words? Here are 3 letters that have offered that for me - K.M.F. What do they stand for? Keep Moving Forward. They first found me several years ago when I picked up running. Soon after discovering the "runners high" I was in love with the sport and as a result found myself training for race events. Along with all that excitement and drive, I discovered what it felt like to hit personal walls, roadblocks if you will. Growing up playing a variety of sports, challenge was nothing knew, but these mental roadblocks were. I thought, maybe I am doing it wrong? But then one day I shared this fear with a fellow runner friend of mine and she assured me this is a common theme in the running world. She suggested I find a mantra - a simple phrase I could repeat over and over that would inspire, propel and give me encouragement in those moments. A mantra is something you can wrap your head around and give your mind a positive focal point for the body to follow.
Sounds simple enough, right? Because mantras are not "one size fits all" you have to create something that speaks to you, making it truly meaningful. I started by flipping through my latest subscriptions of fitness magazines, then I took a few suggestions from fellow runners, I even searched the internet using the keyword "mantra" in hopes of finding the one. And then one day it just came to me, while on a run - Keep Moving Forward! It was so simple yet powerful. I came to understand it wasn't about a bunch of adjectives - strong, brave, fast, resilient, happy, energized - for me it was about staying the course despite rough waters, finishing what I started, no matter how long it took. That as long as I kept moving forward I would eventually get where I was going, and that was all that mattered. Keeping my eye on the bigger picture and not being swayed by the million distractions along the journey. With these 3 words I began to feel empowered, enjoy the journey and be more present in the moment,. Those times when my feet began to hurt, my back ached, my nose was running, and my legs turned to jello, I would remind myself all I had to do was keep moving forward, just one step, one moment at a time.
I came to realize these barriers are just as much mental as physical (yep that mind/body connection again!) When the mind feels defeated and exhausted, so will the body. Yet when we give the mind something positive to focus on, a reason to keep trying, we are empowered to reduce those negative influences and over time, strengthen resolves, mentally and physically. Today I still use these 3 words. They are inscribed on the back of my iPod, they are a common hashtag in my FB and IG posts and an inspirational line added to my email signature. Not only do these words serve as inspiration and motivation, but a reminder of where I have been, the challenging and rewarding journey I've taken and the road I will continue to venture down, the strength I have discovered and my ability to push through challenge. These 3 powerful words are located in a beautifully framed piece of art on my office wall, there to forever remind me to keep moving forward!
