This picture was me at 36.5 weeks into my journey, and the second picture is today, after seven years of work that will continue for my whole life.

It is a lifestyle.

We often discredit someone’s journey because we only see their highlight reels. We forget all humans have it hard. And we forget that a fitness lifestyle is hard no matter if you have a family or don’t.

We all set out each year with New Year’s resolutions. And, according to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, just eight percent of people achieve them, while around 80 percent fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions.

The hardest part about my journey of regaining my fitness was learning to own my story and happiness along with managing all that challenged me, like postnatal depression, my day-to-day challenges, and all the while raising another human being in the process.

After pregnancy, I had the challenge of not just staying fit but getting fit. I had to prove to myself that not only could health and fitness be part of my life with a family, but that it could be part of my family’s as well.

When we see another’s highlight reel on social media, we often use blame as a way to discharge our pain and discomfort—but it only provides the illusion of relief in the short term and causes harm in the long term. As I battled depression and struggled with other life challenges, I tried the blame and resentment game first. I thought the grass was greener for those who had success and also blamed all my circumstances on others around me. It led me nowhere but into the darkness and further away from better tomorrows.

You see, blame for why things are not the way we want them and resentment for what is creates a toxic feedback loop of stress in the body and a lifetime impact on our health. This is where our true responsibility comes in—the way in which we respond.

What I have learned is that nobody has it easy; there is no easy in life and there never will be.

All people deserve respect and credit for their successes, and we must take responsibility for our journey. The odds may not be in our favour, but we can create habits that plant the seeds for a better tomorrow.

In the end, there is always someone proving the odds wrong—reminding us that it is not about our age or if our mom or dad have good genetics, our circumstances, or anything else. Our bodies are our creation, and this is our health story. Our bodies can be molded and shaped with hard work and love from within. But we have to love our bodies. We have to train not because we hate ourselves but because we love ourselves—because this is the only life we have.

I used to believe that in order to be successful, I had to be like everyone else. But as we all know, that won’t get us anywhere.

While it’s perfectly acceptable to have role models, it is essential for you to be authentic and true.

Give yourself permission to take control. Realize that you are 100 percent responsible for your current reality.

Stop wasting your precious time worrying about what’s going on around you and instead, put all your energy and focus toward creating a better you.

Create instead of complaining. Build instead of destroy.

Dare to experiment. Dare to explore.

Your only competition is you!

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