I have always loved being active. But after some hard life events ten years ago I lost track of myself and my habits and all that was good about my journey.

As I aged five years during those life events and then tried to get back at my fitness and movement I noticed everything was harder! Doing any particular exercise I used to do was harder. Every single thing was so much harder. Weight gain snuck up on me like a sniper. The aches and pains I used to have were so much worse.

The only thing that may have saved me is pouring my time and efforts into my clients. I chose to keep fitness classes going for them and although they were much less intense, I now see that they kept me in some kind of a maintain mode.

I spent 40-60 hours a week with clients and classes. Still had three kids at home and struggled to be business owner and mom all at the same time.

I had made some headway into my weight loss and fitness health by 2019 and then covid hit and we went into lockdown.

I made the commitment right then and there that I was not going to let it get to me. Just knowing that people were being forced to stay home I saw it coming. And boy was I right.

So, I had my new Apple Watch and began to use my extra time (no in person clients) to make headway on my weight and fitness even more.

It worked wonderful. I dropped ten pounds. But the workouts were taking a toll on my body. I would run on the treadmill, walk and do weight training.

Not far in I strained my back to the point of barely being able to walk to the clinic for help.

I was doing my best to recover. You know, eat plenty, get plenty of protein, sleep was getting longer and I was doing breathing exercises.

But everything was still hard. I felt my body getting closer to menopause so I knew I was fighting that too.

Then in August of 2021 I decided to get a Garmin Forerunner 945 and I fell in love with it because it has a focus for triathletes and I knew that training like a triathlete had to work out better for me because people do this well into their 70’s and 80’s.

As I got to know the Garmin watch, one thing I fell in love with is the sleep scores and the stress scores. I’d never seen anything with constant stress scores.

This watch has a constant HRV reading going on.

HRV is heart rate variability. I had briefly read about it and played around with it but never really got into it because it was a hassle to use apps that were currently available.

As I learned and watched my scores on my watch it was very obvious to me that I had some high stress going on in my life.

How could that be? I was not just preaching stress free activities but I was practicing them. I could actually do Wim Hof breathing methods and hold my breath on the exhale for up to 2 minutes at times. Usually one minute with no problem.

As I started diving deeper into the situation I realized that my exercise was putting me into a stressed state and I wasn’t coming out of that stressed state very often.

The Garmin watch is pretty good at telling you how many hours it thinks you need for recover before another workout.

How could “I” need 48 hours? Made no sense. I’d never get training in that way. Yet I knew it was true deep down inside because my body didn’t “want” to workout again and it was more “hurt” than “sore”.

Was I being a wimp? Was I weak? Did I just not want to work hard at anything anymore?

Then I realized that after having massages for a year and working all the built up lactic acid in my legs sure helped me in the leg area but yet one or two runs and the tension wanted to come back.

As I began to “wish” my answers to appear, they did.

I came across a book about the Breath by James Nestor and that led me to his book Deep and that led me to a book Deep Survival and that led me to Be Water My Friend by Shannon Lee (Bruce Lee’s daughter) and then to Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougal and then Deep Survial by Laurence Gonzales which led me to Phil Maffetone’s 1:59: The Sub Two Hour Marathon.

Every single one of these books all pointed to the maximum aerobic function. But two of them discussed it in particular.

The maximum aerobic function is the ability to work out at a certain heart rate knowing that you’re using oxygen to fuel the workout instead of glycogen (carbs).

WOW! So that led me to Phil’s next book which is called Get Strong.

Learning to workout in your maximum aerobic zone trains your muscles to be fat burners! Of course, I knew this to be true but this is rarely ever taught or experienced in real life.

Orange Theory wants you in a super high heart rate zone the whole time.

Most people (my clients and myself) included, don’t feel they’re getting a good workout unless the heart rate is high and the sweat is dripping and we feel like jello.

….The Real Journey Begins….

As I start implementing the MAF (maximum aerobic function) I start to feel immediate results.

The first one was JOY. I felt so joyous after my first one hour indoor cycle that I thought maybe my hormones were having a great day.

But then it worked with walking, hiking and jogging as well!

WOW! How could I feel so elated and yet be getting so much exercise. I wanted to go on and on and not stop.

I realized one day I was and had been very much looking forward to my next session. I was counting down the hours!

I started hiking outside in the winter because it just felt so good.

I would come in from the hike already thinking about the next one!

The very last book that all of these other books led me to is Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

In this book, he’s searching for answers as to why he is continually injured running. Why is nearly every runner dealing with injuries and yet there are still people (tribes and others) who run for days and never struggle with these injuries we struggle with.

Long story short, he finds that the people who, today, can run for hours and hours and days at a time DON’T do it for money, competition or fame. They do it because they ENJOY it. They find JOY in their runs.

We have become such a stress filled world.

I’ve been reading this for years and never realized that I have fallen into the same trap.

The reason this new method is working so well for me is because I’m training at a heart rate that keeps me aerobic (oxygen using) and I’m able to find joy in how I feel.

Therefore, I walk, hike, jog, run and lift at a level that keeps me aerobic and happy. The weight is falling off more, inches are going down naturally, I eat when I’m hungry and I rarely “have” to do much recovery such as foam rolling and mobility stretching.

In the end of the book Born to Run, the moral was about the fact that even tho they raced in the toughest part of the land, they were there for each other! The love and joy as a group before, during and after brought me to tears.

It’s reminded me to continue to have faith in humanity.

These are the kind of people I want to live with and learn from.

There’s nothing better in life than to feel good.

To feel good and help others feel good.

To enjoy life and its beauty.

To treat myself like the temple that it is and to pass this legacy on to my children.