February Week 3: Family Support

Do You Feel Supported?

Sometimes it is easier to get support from outsiders because of complicated interpersonal relationships with relatives, including spouses, partners, siblings, and even our children. We often don’t want to appear weak or undesirable (among other things) around family.

Write about how you do or do not feel supported by your family. Write about your confidence level around your family as it relates to fitness. What do you need from family to feel supported? Be specific.

Today’s Daily Movement:
Tomorrow’s Plan:

Family Goals

The guided journals are very personal and individual. We often pursue one of the topics because we personally want to make changes for ourselves. Sometimes families have group goals and sometimes they remain personal.

Do you have family fitness goals? Who created them? Was everyone involved? Do you feel it’s fair to have family goals when it comes to health or do you believe they should be individual? How do your other family members feel about these ideas? Start a conversation and write down what you learn.

Today’s Daily Movement:
Tomorrow’s Plan:

Exercise & Our Children

Do you currently model movement for your children? Have you in the past? How important is it to you that your children value exercise? Do you value it enough to model it for your children?

Write about what fitness related values you hope your children will have when they are older and/or as they grow up. Are you modeling those goals and values for them now? If yes, how? If not, what do you need to change to start modeling your movement values? What do you need to do to model those values now?

Today’s Daily Movement:
Tomorrow’s Plan:

Individuals

A family is made up of individuals. You are the individual from your family who started the guided journal and created your own personal fitness goals. When you choose goals and pursue them, you become a model for your children. Your kids learn by watching you. Your actions convey your goals, values, and beliefs.

Would you consider yourself accepting of the idea that everyone in a family has individual beliefs, motivations, etc. that need support? If not, why? If so, how do you support the individual goals of your family members?

Forcing someone to have the same goals as you may cause resentment. Do you feel your fitness goals are creating resentment from others? If so, how? How do you feel like you can find the balance between meeting your own goals while being a role model for others through your actions?

Today’s Daily Movement:
Tomorrow’s Plan:

Conversations

What do your conversations about fitness look like? Are they lighthearted? One sided? Defeated? Non-existent? Write about it.

Conversations are one thing, expectations are another. Do you ever feel like other people’s beliefs about fitness or their expectations creep into your conversations about exercise? Do your conversations feel peer-to-peer or more like someone telling you what you should be doing? Write about how past and present conversations about fitness have affected your choice to work out.

Who do you feel like you can talk with about exercise and feel inspired? Who’s in your canoe? Make a list of people you feel comfortable talking with or who build you up. Bonus: acknowledge their support by sending them a thank you!

Today’s Daily Movement:
Tomorrow’s Plan:

Boundaries

Looking back over the topic of support, do you feel like you need to set any boundaries with anyone about your fitness journey? Do you need to stop talking about the topic with anyone who is bringing you down or shaming you (either on purpose or inadvertently)? What do you need to say or do to create a healthy boundary and maintain it? Are you able to draw them openly and clearly? Write about it.

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Tomorrow’s Plan:

Back to You

We are surrounded by other people constantly on our journeys, including this fitness one. But at the end of the day, we are each responsible for our own health & well being. You show up for you. This is your journey. You can’t make decisions for other family members, they can’t make decisions for you. Modeling and leading by example are powerful tools that can influence others—but others aren’t always the reason we show up.

Do you show up for you? Do you feel strong in your resolution to strengthen your body and your self for you? Write about it. Make today about you.

Today’s Daily Movement:
Tomorrow’s Plan: