Are You Stuck in Your Own Little Box?

Most people really like their “box”. They prefer the known – and the familiar. People rarely want to step out into unknown territory. Foreign territory can be scary. It’s unpredictable and it’s normally riddled with questions, fears and objectives – but it’s also where we grow the most.

Time to get out of my box!

3 Months ago, Steve asked me to compete with him. Hmmm…let me think. “No thank you”. Then I felt a tugging, a convicting, followed by open doors and confirmation. It was time to get out of my box.

As we started to make our plan, Steve told me he’d like me to get down to 133, and compete at 129. At 5’9″, I normally weigh 144-146 (16-18% body fat) and couldn’t remember the last time I was below 138, much less in the 120s! Knowing Steve knows what he’s talking about, I said OK, and started my fat loss journey to hit the stage for the first time.

Before I talk about the weight loss highs and lows, I first have to go deeper into the danger of living in your comfort zone. I recently saw a post on instagram that said “the comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing grows there“. How true is this?!

When we step out in faith, we are forced to do things we normally would resist. We find out how strong we truly are, what we really can and cannot handle, and we learn new things about ourselves that we’d never learn if we remained where we were.

For me, stepping out on stage in next to nothing, and high heels, was absolutely completely out of my comfort zone. I’d rather sing the national anthem than stand on stage in a bikini. The crowd doesn’t bother me – I could lead them through a workout, give a diet talk or entertain them with music all night long – but just to STAND THERE and do NOTHING but smile and strike a few awkward poses? OMG! Shoot me now.

But, as I tell all my competitors, it’s not about the stage. It’s not about getting a trophy and it doesn’t matter where you place. The stage is the finish line to a diet and exercise race. It’s not about the end, it’s about the process, the journey. So, I agreed to do it and felt God was telling me I had to get out of my fluffy happy easy box. I obeyed  – thinking “Are you SURE you want me to do this? I’m really very ok if you change your mind God. Are you SURE you want me to be half naked? It’s awfully vain God”. He wasn’t buying it. His ways aren’t my ways and evidently He has something He wanted me to learn from this experience. And I do admit, I’m learning a lot.

GROWTH REQUIRES PATIENCE:

I dropped 2lbs a week the first few weeks, then my weight loss started tapering off – more sporadic, more frustrating. It didn’t want to let more fat go, but I stuck with it. It’s just math, it will come off if I follow the rules and don’t give up. Boy was I irritated, thinking, “I wonder if this is as low as my body will let me go. I wonder what I’m doing wrong. How can I not be losing? Why is my weight slowing down?” (mind you, I’ve told hundreds of people why this happens and I know good and well it’s just a temporary sticking phase!) At 139lbs, I wondered if this was good as it was going to get. Ugh! (And I only WISH I could day I had a good attitude while I waited! #EPICFAIL)

GROWTH REQUIRES FAITH:

I hung on to 139 for what seemed FOREVER – but I had faith in the process. So I stayed the course, frustrated but determined. Then BAM! Suddenly I dropped to 135lb last week. This Monday, I weighed in (hoping to break 135), and was shocked to see 133. Today, I reluctantly weighed just to see how I was looking – and I was 129 lbs. Wow! 3 days before the show, and once again, Steve nails it. Talk about dialing someone in! Crazy!! It was my faith in Steve (and in science) that kept me going, knowing that it works for everyone we’ve ever trained and it would work for me too.

GROWTH REQUIRES FAILURE.

Training for a show is the craziest science project I’ve ever worked on! What a cool experiment full of trials and errors along the way. Realize, with the trials, comes the errors (AKA: failure). How can you know what works if you are to scared to find out what doesn’t work? You can’t have success without the risk of failure. Did I fail along the way? Heck yeah! I’d go over my calories one day, and have to do an extra cardio to run it off the next day. I made a few mistakes, but I made a lot more successes. I reached several goals – and I could have never reached one of them if I wasn’t willing to also risk failure.

Was it worth it to step out of my box? I haven’t even stepped out on stage and can already say it totally was worth it already. Even though I still dread the stage, the process has really grown me, and helped me to surpass any goal I’ve ever hit before.

Thank you Steve Pfiester for helping me get out of my box – out of my comfort zone. …and thank you for putting up with my grumpy butt! At least it’s a smaller grumpy butt! I love you!  <3

ABOUT THE SHOW

Click here to get information about the NPC Daytona Classic competition Team Max is doing.  The Daytona Classic is a relatively new show, but a GREAT show with a fantastic turn out, and put on by a wonderful promoter, Mike Matassa. They always have the best entertainment and programming.

Last year, our team (Team Max) was honored with the best Team Award, recognized for our positive attitudes and support back stage for other competitors. It made us so proud – and we have nearly 20 competitors returning this year to do it all over again!

Go Team Max!