We are exactly a month and a week into 2014 and I haven’t written my usual rant about “what-I’m-going-to-change-this-year-and-what-is-going-to-be-better-and-which-fitness-event-am-I-going-to-aim-for” like I do each year when a new year starts. I haven’t done so because I’ve came to a conclusion that will probably kill the entire purpose of this blog, but here it is: it is not always about fitness. Life isn’t all about fitness. There is so much more to life than being able to deadlift 300 lbs or to appear on the cover of Inside Fitness mag. And please, do not get me wrong – I got nothing against deadlifting or Inside Fitness nor posing for fitness magazines. I am not turning my back on fitness altogether, please, if this is the message you get after reading this post, turn around, slap yourself in the face once or twice, put a pillow on your face and scream as loud as you can, then, come back and read again. The conclusion I’ve came to over the past few months is that life isn’t entirely about fitness. Fitness isn’t the center of the world. Being ultra fit doesn’t mean you’re a better person. Being fit is great, but being healthy is what we should all aim for. You see, fitness is one thing and if you’ve been following my few posts over the past 6 months you’ll know that I’ve been going from competing on stage to just training for fun to crossfit to, well now you don’t know what I’m turning to because there’s a bigger picture here and that’s what I’m getting at. I have been unhappy with my fitness goals lately because I was looking for balance even though my goals remained focused around “competing while having a balanced lifestyle (which is impossible by the way because you always end up wanting more and focusing on the date of your show)” or “doing crossfit while training in the gym and maybe getting a shot at the Games in 2015”. It always seemed realistic to me and I would always make it my #1 priority in life, putting everything else second. As long as I got my crossfit or gym sesh in, everything else didn’t matter. It wouldn’t matter if my apartment was a mess or if I hadn’t finished my readings for school. That’s what it was all about, no matter what the goal was, I would train, go to work and see if I’d have time left for other things. That’s what big shot athletes do right? Eat, sleep, train, train and repeat. I used to look up to these people and think “That would be sweet, to be paid to train all day and just do what I love” but I’m sorry to say, these people are missing out. Yes they are big shot at what they’re doing, they’re super athletic and most likely popular and a lot of people look up to them. I am not taking away their achievements, but what happens to these people when they get hurt? Or when they can no longer perform in their sport? I don’t know. I don’t think any of us truly know. They go back to their life and try to put it back together, trying to fix whatever injuries they may have and they try to cope with the fact that they can longer practice the only thing they were ever good at and now, they have to find an everyday job that doesn’t consist of training all day.
Let’s face it – I never came close to becoming a big shot athlete at anything. Sure, I am athletic. I love sports. But that doesn’t mean I have to stick to only one thing and have a goal to make it my #1 priority in life. I could compete for fun on stage, but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I now know myself enough to say that I wouldn’t be able to. Because I’d always want more and wouldn’t be able to NOT make my life revolve around competing. I love crossfit and found new goals and ways to push myself with it, but let’s be honest here, no way I’m making it to the games. It’s like me starting to swim tomorrow, swimming everyday saying “I’ll make it to the Olympics in 2000-whenever the next summer games are”. Reality check here: life, for your average everyday worker, like me, doesn’t consist, and shouldn’t consist, of training for a high end fitness event because you are most likely to a. get injured b. get sick of the sport you picked up before you make it to the big league.
I’m not saying one shouldn’t aim high and have dreams. Because if nobody had that dream of being the best of the best, we wouldn’t have the Olympics at all. I’m just being realistic. Who doesn’t have a full time job, school, kids, a wife or husband, bills to pay, aspirations to be a better person, friends and goals for their career and their family? All I’m saying is that I, Sophie de la Sablonnière, am personally redefining fitness for myself because I got it all wrong all these years. Actually, I didn’t get it all wrong, I just grew up. Fitness shouldn’t be what I promote but rather health. Being fit is one thing, being healthy is another. I want to write about more than just my workouts and my goals for competing. Having a healthy lifestyle consist of more than the hours logged at the gym. It’s about having a warm home you love, taking time for your loved ones. I want to write about more than just fitness. My job, which takes up a big part in my life, where I learn so much more than just pricking people with needles, my life, where I rediscover being healthy through moving, I can run one day, practice yoga the other, and yes, maybe sign up for a race or two wanting to beat my own time. I know I’ll never finish first at a marathon, my blond hair and fair skin gave it away – I am not a Kenyan. I want to write about juggling it all together, time with friends, sex (oh gosh! I’m blushing!), having a baby (mom don’t worry when reading this, not pregnant…yet!), planning to buy a house, everyday stuff that makes my life healthy! This is my new aim for 2014; being healthy. I could change the name of this blog although, Healthy-Soph doesn’t sound as fun as Fitness-Soph, so just bare with me here.
If you want to keep following me, please do, because you’re going to get more bang for your buck! If you don’t, they are plenty of people our there making fitness and competing they’re #1 goals, I’m sure you’ll find one to follow. I’m just tired of chasing dreams that are unrealistic – they just end up making me feel like a failure, which I am miles away from! I am great at my job, I’m an awesome step-mother and I like to think I am a good girlfriend/fiancée when it’s not that time of the month (you all know what I mean). I think I’m funny, or just a loser thinking I am funny but who cares, I can live with that, I have nerdy tendencies but I don’t care and I am a hopeless romantic, and I love it! Basically, I have more to share than how to do a strict pull up and where to get a great tanning lotion for your next competition, if you know me personally, you know that already, and if you’re just reading me, well, my friends, you’re about to find out, because life is about more than fitness. Being healthy involves so many things and I want, I need, to write about them. So let’s do it! Who’s with me? 2014 won’t know what hit it!