Accountability Matters

All accountability partners matter, and I do mean ALL.  Whether it be for working out, studying, financial saving, anything.  We all could use someone that will assist in holding us accountable for the goals we’ve set for ourselves.  This partner can look different for each person that uses one; it could be a parent, a best friend, a God, a dog, even a stranger (think academic advisor, banker, etc.).  Whichever you choose to use, they matter.

I happen to have multiple accountability partners since I personally train people.  I try to avoid standing by a person’s side and telling them what to do, so I almost ALWAYS work out with the people I’m training.  Which meeeaans, you guessed it, I work out a whole lot.  I’m held accountable by all of my trainees because they pay me to help keep them accountable for their fitness goals.  I can’t just wake up and decide “nope, I don’t think I want to help anyone workout today.  I’ll think I’ll eat some donuts and chill”.  NO, I have to get my butt up and make that money boo boo.  This helps keep me super accountable for my own workout regimen and for my clients.

So for this blog, I wanted to introduce you all to some of my partners.  

Sadie

I have to let the pup out twice a day.  If I don’t, one, she’s basically holding pee and poop all day.  And two, she needs a decent amount of exercise per day to avoid gaining weight and to let her get rid of her pinned up energy.  So. Much. ENERGY.  To help get rid of her energy and to give her some extra exercise, I take her on morning runs with me.  This way, she spends some extra time with me, she gets a lot of exercise, and of course, she gets to poop lol.  I mean, she has to go out in the morning anyway, why not taker for a run so I can knock out two birds with one stone?  Get my scheduled run out of the way and spend time with the pup, it’s a win-win situation.

Sorors/The Legion of Petty  

Remember when I said accountability partners can look different?  Welp, another piece of my support system and accountability partners comes in the form of sorority sisters and a groupme chat.  How did this chat start?  Welp, all of us were complaining about our weight and wanting to be more fit, so one of us decided to create a chat to drop workouts, meal plans, healthy meal options, tips, and advice for everyone.  So far it’s been pretty amazing.  I have 3 amazing women with similar goals as me (to be fit, not necessarily skinny), and they cheer me on in all of the ridiculous things I do.  

The chat is also a space for us to vent our fitness AND personal frustrations.  Once we air our grievances with back fat not going away, wanting to get a bigger butt, and not having a six pack, we encourage each other to keep pushing.  Sometimes, we literally just talk about how amazing each of our unique bodies are.

Me: Ya Booty looking kinda right boo boo 

Brittany: Don't gas me up bish!!!

Gwen: Nah homie, you been lookin' like you got some cakes back there, what you been doin???

Rachel: 

Sometimes that’s all you really need to get through another workout or convince yourself to try a new meal plan.  It’s amazing.  If you have a group of friends that you trust, make all of them your accountability partners and I promise something beautiful will come from it. 

Now, I actually do have a workout buddy who happens to be the best accountability partner.  And by best, I do mean the absolute BEST.  I only do my personal workouts with ONE person.   

Elena

Dis her:

Ain't she fine????

Why is she the absolute best you ask?    

Because I said so, don’t question me.  

 When I’m having a crappy day and don’t want to workout, she somehow finesses me into believing that still going to the gym is the smartest idea, I don’t know how she does it.  My typical response is to offer cancelling the workout so I can go home and overindulge in something but nope, she never lets me cancel unless she feels AWFUL.  By awful, I mean she can’t physically walk or needs a mental break from something….das it.  No “I don’t feel like working out today”, no “I mean missing one day won’t hurt”, none of that.  If I say I’m having a rough day, she doesn’t try to make something positive out of it, she lets me be whiny self and is either quiet or listens to me complain the entire time.  Do you know how hard it is to find someone that will deal with all of my mood swings and exhaustion????

It’s EXTREMELY hard!!!!! But she does it effortlessly.  It’s like, she has a Ky manual and knows what page to reference to help get me out of my funk. 

She works out with me even when I’m dressed like a goofy fool.  And when I say goofy, I do mean goofy.  I pull my sweatpants up really high, I tighten the drawstring on my hoodies so that they’re super tight around my face, it’s bad. 

Exhibit A:

When Elena first started working out with me she had just come back from not working out for months.  Her fitness level was novice but she had so much determination.  Shew anted to lose a few pounds and become more active so I invited her to the gym to start working out with me.  At the time, I was battling my own inner demons.  Dealing with a toxic relationship, my aunt had just passed, feeling like I was at a stand-still in my career, so many demons.  She happened to be the light on my darkest days because she’s so gosh darn optimistic, positive, kind humble, and fucking hilarious.  

She made it easy for me to actually want to go workout because she’s such a pleasant person to be around.  She also inspired me to want to be a personal trainer.  She trusted me enough to create workouts catered to her body and fitness level, and try some new things to get new results.  This gave me the confidence that I needed to start pursuing a side hustle in personal training. 

At the time, she couldn’t see all of her progress, but I could.  She was kicking ass in the gym ad I was cheering her on like:

Yasss bish, we gone be cakey this summer!!!!

She was my motivation to get my butt up and go to the gym.  I knew even if I didn’t want to work out, Elena would NEED to workout because she had goals to reach and she wasn’t stopping until she reached them.  I couldn’t let the homie down.  She held me accountable and I reciprocated her actions. She's awesome sauce, period. 

Reasons why my accountability partner is better than yours:

1. She challenges me to think outside the box for workouts

2. She’s taught me how to teach others

3. She allows me to use her as my guinea pig for new workouts.  If you’ve ever worked out with me then you know this is not an easy thing to do. 

4. She genuinely cares about my physical well –being.  She forces me to rethink whether or not I’m over working my body and/or doing too much.

5. She reminds me that it’s okay to not be perfect

6. She reminds that I’ve come a long way from when I started working out

7. She gasses my head up all the time.  From telling me how fwoyne I am to how grateful she is that I help her so much.

8. She lets me push her past what she believes her physical and athletic abilities are….because she trusts me.

9. She’s literally like my trainer mom.  Did you forget your socks again?  Did you eat? Did you drink water today?  Are you wearing the correct shoes?  I swear I can’t do anything bad without getting fussed at,

10. She’s my biggest cheerleader.  When I decided to start doing CrossFit, she thought I was crazy but kept telling me to keep going and to stick with it.  When I wanted to see how heavy I could lift, she encouraged it.  Even now with me deciding to train for a half marathon, she’s been an encouraging friend this entire time.  When I complain that my little legs are struggling she reminds me that I’m her shero and it brings me an obscene amount of joy. So much that I have to hide a big stupid Kool-Aid smile.  Ya know, cuz I’m a thug, I’m a thug first.  She tells me that I can do it, I just have to stick with it.  I don’t have too many cheerleaders in my corner, but I can honestly say I’m blessed to have her as mine.

I encourage everyone to get an accountability partner if you want to start exercising or working towards your fitness goals.  They’ll hold you accountable for sticking to your workout regimen, meal plan, meal prepping, EVERYTHING.  But make sure you get a good one, as in actually put effort into choosing an accountability partner.  Don’t choose someone that has the same terrible habits as you they’ll only encourage your bad habits.  Choose someone that has similar goals, thinks like you, and has the same, if not more, drive and motivation as you.   Choose someone that is positive and will cheer on your tiny accomplishments.  Whether it be only losing a pound, getting rid of some back fat, or simply being able to walk up a flight of stairs without breathing as heavy.  Whatever it may be, choose wisely.  And always remember, my partner is soooo much better than yours.