Fitness isn’t just a game of physical activity. If you want to gain the most benefit from your workouts, you need to bring the right emotional and mental state to the table as well. Find out how to embrace your emotions to get you on the fast track to your health and fitness goals.

I get it, I get it. You want to get in shape, get leaner, or live a healthier lifestyle. But here’s the problem:

You’re trying to fix the symptom of your less than healthy ways—the tight clothing, the scale that seems to scream at you, and the grimace you see on your face while standing naked in the mirror—rather than starting with the cause of them.

You might be thinking, “Well, I know the cause of why my clothes don’t fit. I have a fierce sweet tooth and hate going to the gym!”

 So you try and fix your diet, hit the gym more often, and get a little more sleep at night. But, for some reason, you don’t make much progress.

It’s because your actions aren’t getting in your way—you know, the gym, the meal prepping, and the endless attempt to cut down on your carb-loving ways. It’s the emotions and mindset that you’re attaching to those actions that are keeping you stuck.

EMOTIONAL FITNESS FIRST
Trying to fight your symptoms with misguided action won’t fix the foundation of the problem.  It’s like trying to fix strep throat with cough drops.

Here’s the deal:
• You don’t want to gain muscle, you want to be confident.
• You don’t want to be fit, you want to be happy.
• You don’t want to lose weight, you want to feel the freedom paired with all of the things that you’ll be able to do once you drop those pounds you’ve been hanging onto.

Without even knowing it, you are associating an emotion that you want to feel with some fitness finish line in your head. It seems sort of harmless, but it can actually slow your progress tremendously.

If you wait until you ran 5 miles without stopping to feel confident, it’s going to be a miserable journey along the way. If you wait until you fit into your wedding dress to feel happy, you won’t have much fun until you do.
If you wait until you’ve dropped 100 pounds to feel free from that weight that you perceive to hold you back, it will hold you back indefinitely.

Playing this emotional waiting game is toxic to your goals in the realm of health and fitness. The longer you have to wait to feel how you want to feel, the more resentment you’ll bring to the process.

RAISE YOUR VIBE, RAISE YOUR RESULTS
It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it can—and should—be completely reversed.
• You can choose confidence now.
• You can choose happiness now.
• You can choose freedom now.

By doing so, you will no longer need the gym, your nutrition plan, or your fitness goals to give that to you. It will be something that you can cook up for yourself.  At this point, I have a feeling that these words might be a breath of fresh air to you.

“Awesome! I don’t need that workout to feel good about myself, I’m already good enough! But wait, how exactly do I choose to be confident when, right now, I can’t find a reason that justifies it?”

 I’m glad you asked.

The thing is, you have access to (and have certainly experienced) every emotion known to mankind. How you’re feeling right now is irrelevant, because you have the power to…

Recall that emotion from a past experience OR imagine that emotion based on how you want to feel when you reach your goal.

And once you’ve brought that emotion into your present moment, you can use it to accelerate towards your version of health and fitness success.

CHOOSE TO FEEL GOOD NOW, THEN CREATE MORE EVIDENCE FOR THAT FEELING
To feel confident before you hit the gym, recall a moment when you were your most confident. Maybe it was when you rocked your go-to outfit and caught the eye of an admirer or when you crushed a job interview.

To feel happy before you start your latest nutrition plan, daydream about how happy you’ll feel when you reach your goal weight or finally run that marathon. Let that feeling pull you forward towards your eventual success.  You get the idea.

You already have access to the emotion that you—up until this point—have previously reserved for the day you reach your goals.  By bringing them to life before you embark on your health and fitness journey, you can move forward with an empowered swagger.  Why is that, you ask?

Because you will be acting and feeling like the person who is ready to invite that kind of success into their lives.

 When you are acting and feeling on behalf of the future success you see for yourself, you will move through your workouts and your meal prepping with a smile on your face, knowing that you are well on your way to physical, emotional, and mental state of your dreams.  Be the person that is ready for a transformation. Don’t wait to feel like the woman you yearn to become. Be her today.

CONCLUSION
Becoming physically fit is important to you.  But it’s important that you understand that being emotionally fit—being willing to bring your most powerful emotions into your present moment—is the best way to line yourself up for a stronger, leaner, more confident version of yourself.

Emotional fitness first, physical fitness second.