Fit For Life: You are Capable of More Than You Know…

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Matt Espeut, GoLocalWorcester Health +Lifestyle Contributor

At my weekly sales workshop yesterday, our sales coach started talking about the characters in the movie, The Wizard of Oz, to open discussion. He compared the characters to people in everyday life and how we have many of the traits that the fictional characters do.

Let me explain. The cowardly lion. He was scared of everything, and didn’t have any courage. Everything scared him, and because of it, he was paralyzed with fear most of the time, therefore was unable to function at his fullest potential. Now I don’t know about you, but things in everyday life still scare me. Like…running a business. Everyday there is some sort of fear about what could happen. The computers could crash. The Wi-Fi could stop working. Someone could get hurt. I could make a mistake and screw up a marketing campaign. There could be an unhappy client. An employee might be late for their shift. All these things could potentially happen, and the thought of it instills a level of fear.

We all live with a sense of fear because nothing in life is guaranteed. We all want our friends and family as well as ourselves to be safe so knowing all the possibilities of what could go wrong can create anxiety in us.

But I have a saying that I tell myself over in my head and it goes like this: 90% of what scares us never happens, and the other 10% we can’t do anything about, anyway, so stop worrying and don’t let fear and anxiety control your life like the lion.

The scarecrow didn’t have a brain and, obviously, that’s not the case with humans, but we still let lack of knowledge prevent us from doing certain things. For myself, yes, I lack a lot of things. More education, computer skills, business knowledge among many other things. Hell, the only thing I feel totally confident that I am completely knowledgeable about is getting people fit and healthy. But I never let that stop me from doing the things I wanted to do. It may have slowed me down, but never stopped me. I didn’t know how to answer an email a few years ago, but lack of knowledge or the stupidity excuse started to get old. So now I go out of my comfort zone, and try to learn the tasks I need to do to be productive and achieve the goals I set for myself. Some things are still a struggle, but nothing is impossible, and with the right mindset and approach, anything is possible.

In conclusion, and what I took from the comparison of the movie characters is that they all needed something and were searching for it, but at the end of the story, they learned that they had it all along.

That’s right, we all have the courage and knowledge to be successful at whatever it is we want to accomplish. Sure, it’s easier to make excuses and say, “it’s scary” or “I can’t do that because I don’t know how”, but that is technically a bunch of bullcrap. We are humans and we are stronger and more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. Yes, some are more superior than others in certain fields, and everyone can’t be the best, but you should never let fear or lack of knowledge prevent you from being the best version of yourself.

Remember it’s a tough world out there and survival alone is tough, but we need to put our best foot forward every day and take control of the things we can, and stop worrying about the rest.

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one.

Related Slideshow: The 7 Best Health and Fitness Apps

Here is a list of some of the most obsession worthy health apps.

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MapMyRun

MapMyRun is the number one selling running app for a reason: it is easy to use, offers community support if you want it, and tracks and stores your exact routes for you. If you are training for a race or a serious runner, users say that the extra perks in the upgraded paid version are well worth it.

Made for iPhone, Android and Blackberry

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MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal seems to be the clear favorite amongst everyone polled. It is helpful not only for the fitness tracking aspect, but everyone polled mentioned how much they loved the food/diet aspect as well. From carb counting for diabetics to recipe ideas to complement your fitness goals, users love this app.

Made for iPhone and Android

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JeFit

JeFit is another fitness app that has rave reviews. It not only tracks progress for you, but offers a huge database of workouts. While many apps offer community support, JeFit allows you to sync workouts with friends who use the app, offering a (real) virtual buddy system.

Made for iPhone and Android

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Strava

Strava gets the highest mark of all the cycling apps. While it is also great for runners, the cyclers seem particularly inclined towards the fierce competition that can be ignited by this app. You can track all of your rides via GPS, then you can compare your efforts to those logged by others in the community on the same stretch of road. You can also join ongoing challenges that can net you great prizes (in addition to bragging rights).

Made for iPhone and Android

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YogaStudio

YogaStudio gets the top vote for Yoga apps. It has a lengthy collection of full class-length videos available at your fingertips. Unlike many other apps, this one also allows you to customize your own video yoga class. All of the poses are done by qualified yoga instructors, and you can find classes suitable for all levels of yogis.

Made for iPhone only

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SimplyBeing

SimplyBeing meditation app offers the best of both worlds. You can choose to run this app as a background for your meditation with soothing music or natural sounds that run for a set amount of time. Conversely, for those of you who have trouble focusing during meditation, you can choose a soothing voice-guided meditation.

Made for iPhone and Android

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Fooducate

Fooducate is an app all about educating people so that they make healthier food choices. Although not perfect, this app is easy to use (you can even take pictures of bar codes to instantly find foods in their database). It gives food a letter grade, tells you the pluses and minuses, and gives you better ranked alternatives. You can also use it as a weight loss tool by tracking your daily calories.

Made for iPhone and Android