This week the ADOFitness trainers will be addressing three insecurities that they’ve dealt with whether it be physical or experiences that they faced. Coach Jennifer shares her story.

I’ve posted before about my hip injury and that it’s been one of my biggest insecurities. The fact that part of my body is weaker than the rest has always made me feel less then my best. When I go to the gym I’m in full beast mode, I always challenge myself and go until failure. There were times that I couldn’t even lunge on the right side because I was so weak performing that movement. It’s been frustrating to say the least, I’ve broken down quite a few times in tears mentally drained from being stressed about it. Because I set very high standards, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well which makes it hard to accept that things can be physically challenging. Around a year ago I was doing single leg presses, and I could do 70 pounds heavier on my left leg than on my right. That is a significant difference in strength. I remember feeling so overwhelmed at that moment thinking what can I do to make my right leg as strong? One thing that always kept me going was remembering that I had overcome those feelings of sadness before and chose to not give up. I needed to remind myself that nothing happens overnight and that every workout I would make it that much stronger. When I started to look at it from a positive perspective, it became exciting to see it get stronger week after week????

Another insecurity that I’ve dealt with is my past experiences and poor choices I made years ago. I wasn’t always a big health enthusiast and actually partied quite a bit. I was really into drinking and even dabbled with drugs. Definitely not proud moments of my life. I remember thinking what a failure I was and why was I wasting time of my life doing absolutely nothing to better myself or my future. I was lost in the moment and didn’t think of the consequences until later on. Sometimes I catch myself thinking what my life would be like if I made better choices years ago. And you know what? What happened in the past is in the past that’s not who I am. Who I am is a strong motivated woman and it’s because of those past experiences and the things that I dealt with that made me who I am today. I think sometimes I forget I’m just human and humans make bad decisions every now and then. What you learn from your past and how you shape your future is what matters. Those past choices turned out to make me wiser, gave me strength, and helped me get to where I am today.

Lastly I’ll address my insecurity of my off-season body. Anyone who’s competed or even dealt with weight gain can relate. Not loving what you see in the mirror really sucks it’s hard to see cellulite and things that jiggle on your body. For the most part I was OK with my body and embraced the weight gain and then summer came and I tried all my summer clothes on. ? I pretty much had a mini meltdown and cried because nothing fit everything was so tight. Bras didn’t even fit and I felt really embarrassed & disgusted with myself. It didn’t help that most of my friends were completely shredded all summer either. Let’s be honest next to them I felt huge. I had cellulite on the tops of my legs and on my butt, and it just made me feel really ugly. I held it together pretty well only the people that are really close to me saw how I really felt, and of course Jordan got to hear it all?? poor guy ? All my friends and Jordan were very sympathetic and would try to make me feel better ❤️Then a beautiful thing happened. I stopped feeling bad and started to remember my goals. I made the decision that I wasn’t going to feel bad about my body anymore. Sometimes all you need is encouragement from others and to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. I focused on the bigger picture rather than a short amount of time. I needed to gain that weight so I could have a good off-season and make improvements. I was happy, healthy, and I got to eat a lot of pizza???? It taught me that I will never reverse diet poorly again.

Everyone has insecurities but if you look at the positive side of those insecurities it will make you stronger. Not saying it will be easy because I still struggle with things every day but it will teach you if you pay attention.