Don’t feel guilty for pursuing health or fitness

Peer pressure. You think once you become an adult that you have escaped it, but man, are you wrong. If you are in the fitness realm in any sense of the word, from starting your journey, to being years in; you know exactly what I mean…

Let’s set the scene. You go out for dinner with a group of friends after a long work week or for a friend’s birthday. The waiter comes over to take a drink order and you are the one and only person to just say, ”Water”….

*GASPS*

“Why aren’t you drinking?”

“Get a drink, don’t you want to have fun?”

“Where’s your alcohol?”

“You’re no fun.”

All eyes are now on you. Disbelief. Shock. Disappointment. Then the questions come in.

So now you are standing at a cross road. Do you stay true to yourself and your own goals and not drink? Or do you escape social suicide and order a drink when the waiter comes back. Maybe just one? Even though you have no desire to participate. Even though you just wanted a fun dinner and no hangover or icky feeling the next day? Do you drink even though you planned to be up early on Saturday to make it to the community WOD or to the 8:00 am class?

As I have gotten older staying true to myself and who I am has become so much easier. When I first started this journey in my early twenties, this was not so much the case. I had begun to try to be serious in the gym. I wanted to have a career in fitness in some form. I wanted to gain muscle and be a fit little machine who could go all day. Most of the friends I had at the time did not at all care about that life. Which is fine. We were young and in college. Their idea of fun was starting to be much different than my own. For them it was drinking all day before a Football game and having Bojangles or Cookout for dinner or a drunk snack on a Wednesday night, and every Friday. I mean, I get it, it was college after all. For me, these things were not as fun anymore, and when I left for study abroad in the Winter of 2015 I was finally able to explore who I was that following Spring away from the American college culture.

I remember in 2016 during my study abroad time in Germany being in my apartment bedroom alone, and as cliché as it may sound, I was finding myself. I spent much of the weekdays alone in my room or out walking around the city, occasionally meeting up with friends for meals, or going out with them because I was the one who could translate. For the first time, I was able to grocery shop and make meals for myself. I would sign up for university spin classes and yoga classes. I would walk anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 steps all over Mannheim just in my own head about what I wanted and who I wanted to be. It felt good to just walk and move. I was eating the healthiest I ever have. The grocery store was a block away so I would buy fresh veggies daily.

One day, as I was supposed to be doing homework, I was watching the CrossFit Games Documentary one day, and I saw the girl I wanted to be. There were these girls who were so positive, so motivating, and so string. Katrin, Sara, Annie, and Camille, all of these super strong, super fit women who to me were exactly who I wanted to be. The things these athletes did in the games, they amazed me, and I knew that a typical college kid binge drinking lifestyle would never get me there or anywhere close.

Flash forward to today, 2022, I am 27 years old, and I am no where CLOSE to be being a CrossFit Games athlete, but I am the strongest, and fittest I have ever been. This is all any of us should be striving for. To be the best version of ourselves.

For me, drinking and eating garbage food just does not align with the life I want to lead. So when I go out and say that I am having water, it is not because I think I am a Games Athlete or superior to anyone, it is simply that alcohol does not leave me ready to workout the next day. It does not help me grow in the things I would like to grow in, so I do not want to have it be a part of my weekly habits. If you are out with me, you can have your drinks, I will not be judging you, those are your choices. Your goals are not mine, and vis versa. You are free to do as you please, but so am I.

If you are out with someone who is busting their ass in the gym and they try to live a life outside of the gym that is going to take them closer to their goals, then please do not be that person that makes them choose. Respect their decision and allow them to be who they are, even if it is weird to you. Even if every single person at the table is having a drink but them. Let them. Don’t not invite them because there will be alcohol, they likely still would like to go, they just won’t drink.