Transcript: Working Out for You: Why Choosing Yourself Is the Secret to Showing Up
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Ashley introduces the episode and connects the concept of 'choosing yourself' — drawn from James Altucher's book — to her approach to fitness and self-improvement.
The real motivator to work out has to be doing
it for yourself. What's up you guys? Famous Ashley
Grant here. Welcome to More Movement Please,
the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move
your body more. Today I want to talk about the
importance of choosing yourself. If you've ever
heard me talk about this, you know that the book
Choose Yourself by James Altucher means a lot
to me. It's kind of one of the things that helped
me with my career. It helped me with a lot of
the things that I decided that I was going to
do for myself rather than doing them for others,
because it is so, so critical whenever you're
trying to do something that's for self -improvement.
Ashley describes how the early excitement of a fitness journey fades, and how doing it for external reasons — a spouse, children, or others' opinions — leads to resentment, drawing on her own experience with dieting via shots and pills.
Let's talk about it. So when you decide that
you're going to begin your fitness journey, and
this has been said on this podcast before, when
you first get started, there's a lot of feelings.
There's excitement. There's There's euphoria,
there's nerves, there's all kinds of things.
And when you first begin, it kind of gets exciting
to see how much can I do? How much can I really
like go and take care of myself? There will come
points though, where you're not going to want
to go to the gym. You're not going to want to
get up and move. You're not going to want to
put in the effort that's required to keep going.
And for some people, they'll tell themselves,
well, I'm doing this for my husband. I'm doing
this for my wife. I'm doing this for my children.
The problem with that line of thinking is at
some point, you're going to resent it. And ask
me how I know. In the beginning of my fitness
journey, whenever I first got started many moons
ago, when I made that awful decision to do dieting
the wrong way, where I did it with shots and
pills, I wasn't doing it for me. I really wasn't.
I was doing it because other people were telling
me that I was overweight. I was doing it because
other people told me that there was a certain
size or body type that I needed to have. I was
doing it because I wanted to make other people
think I looked good, rather than doing it for
my own self -confidence, my own strength, my
own health. That's not the complete reason that
doing it that way failed. The big reason that
that way failed is because it wasn't sustainable
and it was very expensive. So when I started
Ashley reflects on walking into her first Zumba class in 2023 driven by fear of unnamed circumstances, and how that mindset kept her going through the motions at barely three hours of exercise a week.
again back in 2023, unfortunately, again, it
wasn't for me. And in the very beginning, whenever
I walked into that first Zumba class, I was doing
it out of fear. And it was fear of some circumstances
in my life that I won't get into. And one day
I really hope that I'll have the courage to talk
about it. But I wasn't doing it for me yet. I
was still in a bad mindset of doing it for reasons
outside of myself. And I think that's honestly
why I didn't push myself very hard. I just was
going through the motions, doing what I thought
was the best I could, and I was barely working
out three hours a week. When things really kicked
Ashley describes the shift that happened when she decided to work out for herself — competing only with her past self, thinking about future Ashley's struggles, and proving she could do more than she thought.
into high gear was when I made the decision to
choose myself and do it for myself. That was
when everything really kind of became crystal
clear. It kind of became my reason for moving.
When I decided to do it for me, the competition
was no longer anyone around me. It was my past
self. When I needed to get motivated and excited
about working out, I was thinking about future
Ashley and all the struggles that she would endure
if she didn't work out now. And it was also me
proving to myself That I could do more than I
thought I could. So. I guess what I'm trying
to say is. When you are doing anything for other
people. Yes it may feel good. It may feel like
you're nurturing them. It may feel like you're
doing a service for others. But when you do things
for yourself. When you choose yourself. When
you decide that. This is for me, my longevity,
my health, my own personal strength, my own life.
At least for me, that's when I finally got serious.
It became a mission of let me prove to myself
I can actually do this. And there are times where
when it gets hard. Or whenever I feel like I
don't know if I can do that next rep. I think
about the future version of myself. Who needs
the current version of myself. To be getting
as strong as possible. That it fuels me to keep
Ashley shares concrete examples of physical limitations she used to have — hunting for close parking spots, avoiding stairs, asking for help with groceries — and encourages listeners to picture their future selves and make a change for their own sake.
going. And I want that for you too. So start
thinking about who you are now. And who you want
to be in the future. Do you want to be the person
who always needs help? carrying the groceries
in do you want to be the person who constantly
worries oh my goodness I might fall down or I
can't get up those stairs or I gotta park as
close as possible because I'm gonna get winded
because I've been there I was the girl that was
always trying to find the spot as close as humanly
possible to the door because I knew that if it
took me too long to get to the door That I was
just going to be tired. I was the girl who constantly
was asking, where are the elevators? Because
I couldn't handle going upstairs. I was the girl
that asked for help to bring even the smallest
amount of groceries in. So many things that I
think about now that I don't need help with anymore.
And I'm just, I'm proud of it. So yeah, I want
you guys to look into the future. And consider
what your future self is going to look like.
And if you don't like what you see, make a change.
Only you can. And only you should do it for yourself.
And I would love to hear from you guys. What's
going on? How are things going? Tell me all the
things. Hit me up at famousashleygrant .com backslash
fitness. I would love to hear what's going on.
What's your journey looking like? Onwards and
upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?