Becoming a fit and adventurous family

By

Victoria Kight

For one year, five days a week, I loaded up my energetic boys and their snacks, and drove to the gym.  Shooing them into the daycare room, I pushed my overweight, aging body through a 90-minute, I-might-puke, exercise routine. I lost the weight. I gained some muscle. I could wear leggings in public without strangers looking away. But after lunch, in the yard, my kids were climbing, running, and jumping with joy, while I was in a chair observing, muscles on fire, munching on an Oreo-flavored protein bar.

The irony hit me one day, as I tried to corral the boys into the car for our daily drive to the gym.  “Why do we have to go there every day?  Its no fun!  That lady who works there yells at us.  All we do is watch TV.  I hate the gym!”  So much for my shining example of fitness and health. 

What began as an honest desire to be a more active part of my children’s lives had somehow morphed into me surviving a brutal physical routine while they ate goldfish and watched SpongeBob SquarePants.  Did it really have to be a choice between my children and my health?  Who was supposed to sacrifice here? And wasn’t I doing this for them, to be healthy so that I could run and play and keep up with my kids? There had to be a better way.

I searched the internet for weeks and, luckily, found Chris and Adventure Driven Fitness.  Chris assured me I could achieve my goals without leaving the yard. That I could get stronger without pushing myself to pain. That I could get leaner without packaged ‘healthy’ snacks. Honestly, it sounded too good to be true.

I signed up for online coaching

Everything was different from day one. Instead of participating in someone else’s program, Chris had me set my own goals, and then he created the plans to achieve them. Yes, the herd accountability of the fitness class was gone. But in its place was something new – a personal goal and a custom path to achieve it.  All I had to do was follow the program, the one Chris wrote specifically for me, do the work, and then enjoy the rewards. 

I have an app on my phone that describes my workout each day in detail, and there’s always a video demonstration of Chris modeling it for me.  When we first began, I was totally clueless.  I had never seen or heard of the MovNat techniques I had set a goal to master.  Chris was patient and incredibly thorough.  Even though we live on separate corners of the earth, he answered my questions immediately.  I always upload videos of myself doing the first rep of the workout, and, honestly, I get more feedback from Chris than from any of the one-on-one sessions I had in the gym. 

When I decided I wanted to run a marathon, Chris evaluated the data from my watch every day, monitored my runs, and always gave expert feedback for my strategy, my pacing and my speed.  My race ended up getting canceled, but Chris encouraged me to run it anyway.  I’m so glad I did.  I’ll always be proud of what I accomplished that day.  I have no idea what time it was in Denmark, but I know I wasn’t alone that day, running those 26 miles.  Chris rooted me on with digital messages the entire time. 

Every month Chris and I chat on Skype. In the last year we’ve run through the gamut of goals together –pistol squats, ten pullups, a Spartan Beast, all of the Level 1 and Level 2 MovNat manual, a full marathon, a faster 5k, and a healthy diet. Chris was able to craft a schedule of at-home exercises that allowed me to hit every target I set, complemented by nutrition counseling. A year after meeting Chris, I felt in control of my food, my body, and my health. I’m almost 41, I’ve had three children, and I am in the best shape of my life, by a long shot. 

A Family of Outdoor Adventurers

But what happened to those three boys who hated going to the gym?  Who were always begging their mom to come outside and play? Whenever people ask me how I like working out alone, I laugh. I’m never alone.  When I rest between sets of pullups, my ten-year-old takes his turn.  When I work on balancing on the one-inch rail, my eight-year-old is right behind me.  Precision jumping? I’ve got to wait in line.  After I make breakfast, the kids are dressed and ready to go – out into the yard.  “What exercises are we doing today, Mom?”

Chris’s coaching has helped me achieve a long list of accomplishments, goals I would have never imagined possible for a woman my age without an athletic background. He’s helped me with accountability and direct, practical feedback, and he has shared his coach’s pride in my progress. I too felt pride, the kind a parent feels, when I watched my six-year-old do ten strict pull ups on a bar, when my ten-year-old asked if I’d run his first 5k with him, when my eight-year-old finished a two-mile Spartan and conquered every obstacle.

In the last year with Chris, fitness has become a daily part of my family life. I’m now the kind of mother who can climb a rock wall and run a touchdown.  But most importantly, it has given my kids the understanding that real fitness brings adventure and joy to your life, at every age.

Thanks for reading! Are you ready to create your own success story? Check out my online coaching.

ABOUT VICTORIA

I started out as a motorcycle-riding, chain-smoking, thrill-seeking individualist. Now, I’m a home-making, homeschooling mother of three. I didn’t go where I expected, but I ended up where I needed to be. Learning how to create an exercise program in the outdoors has been a natural extension of my simple life in rural Georgia.