Yes, It Is Important for Cowboygirls To Work Out!!!

OK guys….soooo….I fell off the wagon. Not the sobriety wagon, mind you, but the clean-eating/taking-care-of-yourself/working-out wagon.

I’ve never felt like my fitness or my body was where I wanted it to be, to be perfectly honest with you. I always felt like no matter how good of shape I was in at the time, I could be skinnier, stronger, leaner, or faster. And jumping on the scale in the morning? That quickly becomes an obsession for me and I know that that's not healthy at all.

I have a tendency to swing wildly from a serious fitness freak, to a pizza eating, couch potato. My fitness level and my body tend to swing wildly as well as a result of that. That’s just not healthy.

As cowboygirls and horsemen I think we owe it to our partners, our horses, and ourselves, to be in the best shape possible. I don’t mean that we should be skinny or a certain pant size…I mean we should be the healthiest and strongest that WE can be individually! Horses are athletes and we should adopt that mentality as well! How can we expect the best out of them if we’re not expecting it from ourselves? Riding colts and sticking with a spooky horse and working the ground is a heck of a lot easier if we’re in shape and strong.

Because of all this, and the fact that my little beer belly is uncomfortably peeking over the edge of my waistband, I’ve decided to make some changes that will be a LIFESTYLE change…not just a temporary fix.

Green smoothies are amazing! They fill you up and allow you to eat more veggies than you ever could raw!

I hope some of you gals (and guys!) join me in getting fit!

Instead of focusing on the scale, I’m going to focus on making my body the strongest, most inhospitable to disease and sickness that it can be.

Instead of focusing on size, I’m going to focus on what my body can do…how far it can run, how many pushups it can do, how many miles it can hike, how many horses it can ride, and how many burpees it can complete!

Instead of completely denying myself my favorite foods, I’m going to think of giving my body fuel, and allowing myself to eat “naughty” food in moderation.

Instead of focusing on a number, I’m going to focus on how many fun different things I can try that will push me…mentally as well as physically.

I want to be able to do this again!

So for those of you that can be a little like me, AKA…type A, “everything or nothing” personality, here’s what I’m going to do instead of adopting my usual attitude…

·      Drink more water.

·     Don’t drastically change your diet right off the bat, just focus on eating more veggies and less processed food at first.

·      Sweat. A lot.

·     Try yoga, rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, lifting weights, running on the beach…don’t become bored by your workout!

·      Set a goal that will mark your physical fitness as opposed to a number on the scale. I want to be able to do 100 pushups all in a row one day. My little goal is to be able to eek out 20 in a row by the end of the month.

As cowboygirls we have tight gates that need to be opened, hay bales that have to be moved, fence that needs to be built and horses that need to be shod…we owe it to our partners, our horses, to be in the best shape possible. If you don’t want to work out for you, do it for them.

xo xo Liz