Training for your next vacation, and I’m not talking about throwing a fit
I was born in the 80’s, high school in the 90’s, and early aughts for my college years. In short, I was raised by images of Victoria’s Secret Angels, teen magazines telling me how to lose 10 lbs in 24 hours, and Dexatrim. I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to think for a minute that I have NEVER overtrained or starved myself before a vacation to look good in a bikini.
Now, I have a bikini body for the simple reason that I put a bikini on my body.
This summer, my family went on a 10-day European vacation. My husband, Sam, was already in the Czech Republic learning from Vladamir Sosna, so I flew with my daughters (ages 13 and 10) to meet up with Sam. The first time, I thought about my pre-vacation workouts on this trip was when I was hauling my 10 year old’s carryon into the top of the train luggage rack. She exclaimed “Mom! You’re soo strong.” And I felt AMAZING! This feeling was better than anyone ever telling me I look good - my daughter saw me as STRONG!
If I was starving myself to be as thin as possible. Be as compact as possible. To never take up space. I would not have had the courage to fly across the pond with 2 girls and all of our luggage. I would’ve sat on the sidelines waiting for Sam to come home scared to make noise.
For the rest of the 10 day trip, there were lots of times that I was sooo happy I committed to the 6AM Alpha Lifetime workouts with Coach Bryan. When we were running with all of our luggage up the stairs because we only had 3 minutes to get to our train and the station in the tiny town in Eastern Europe didn’t have an esclator. When we hiked for 8 hours through Switzerland, and into a gorge, and then up to the top of another mountain. When we walked up over 300 stairs to reach the Petrin Lookout Tower | Prague.org.
And the best part of all of this, is my daughters saw me lead by example. Saw me lift the heavy suitcase, run up the stairs, and just keep going. Not once, did I say “Let’s wait for someone to come help us.” We just went for it. And my resilient, strong and amazing daughters kept up the entire time. No whining. No “it’s too heavy and I’m too weak.” They just kept moving.
In addition to admitting that I have been on more pre-vacation diets than I want to admit, I’m also going to admit that I am in fact vain. I do love throwing a good fit. But at the end of the day, I love the feeling of moving my body with confidence in any space and knowing I can take care of myself more.