and dropping 2 notches in my belt!
First off, Shift Adventures, Bucerias Retreat, is NOT a “fat camp!”
It is however a safe place to shift your mindset, set/achieve new goals, try scary/hard things, and a time/place to show yourself that you really are capable of more!
Since returning from Bucerias in November, my life truly has been changed. I always wanted to be that person who got up early, worked out, and lived an amazing life. However I always found 100 excuses for why I couldn’t.
Shift Adventures starts each day with a 630 am rooftop session. Sessions varied between yoga flow and workouts, but either way we moved our bodies for 30-45 minutes every morning -
before breakfast.
After breakfast we’d head out for some adventure. Activities included ocean SUP, surfing, a beach hike, bike tour, snorkelling, beach volleyball, a cooking class, and a beach workout.
Days then ended with either yin yoga, mobility work, or yoga nidra.
In between we had time to tour the town, relax by the pool, swim in the ocean, have a massage,
or nap.
So now for how this all lead to me changing my life, and losing inches and weight…
Being in a house with people who were ALL getting up for the 630am rooftop session, definitely motivates a person to get out of bed and join the class. So for a full week, my alarm would go off, I would moan and think “ugh, do I have to. Maybe today I’ll just skip the class.” Then I’d remind myself that I paid for this, and everyone will be walking past me door soon, so I’ll just get up. I’d make my way upstairs, begrudgingly unroll my mat, and wait for the class to start. By the time the class was over, I was energized, usually laughing, and ready to take on the world/day. As I’d walk downstairs for breakfast I’d hear myself think “man am I glad I got up. I feel AMAZING!” This happened 7 freaking days in a row.
By the time I got back home, it was already becoming a habit, a shift. Now, 2 months after being back, I’m still getting up in the morning, only now I’m getting up at 530am because my kids wake up at 6am. Still, most mornings when my alarm goes off, my first thought is “UGH, maybe today I’ll sleep in.” Only now instead of saying, but you paid for this, I remind myself how awesome I felt/feel after moving my body for 30 minutes.
Before going to Mexico with Shift Adventures, I’d try to tell myself “you’ll feel so good, if you’d just get up and do the workout,” but having not had the 7 day experience, I’d quickly over ride that thought, and roll over to fall back asleep.
The next life changing shift that happened thanks to my week with Shift Adventures, was my willingness to try new things, hard things, scary things, heck - impossible things! There is something about living with a group of positive, supportive people (all on their own - yet similar journey) for week, that makes a person more willing to try new things. Maybe it’s FOMO, or maybe it’s the energy, I don’t know. What I do know is that I went snorkelling and didn’t die. I ate shrimp, and also didn’t die. Heck, I got up at 6am every day - worked out, and still didn’t die!! All of these things took me very far out of my comfort zone!!! And at times I was petrified!! Especially snorkelling! Upon reflection though, I felt so dang good after doing those hard things. I showed myself I AM capable of hard things! For the first time in a LONG time, I was feeling proud of myself!
Back home, I often let the perfectionist in me, hold me back. If I didn’t think I’d be good at something, I wouldn’t bother trying. Or I’d try something once, be terrible, take that as proof that I shouldn’t do something, and quit. I repeated this pattern so often that I started to believe I wasn’t capable of anything!
A bit of a side bar example… I grew up as a teenager with a lot of athletic guy friends. And sadly, I often compared my athleticism to them. I also had already started the habit of try once, suck, quit. Long story short, I played on a mixed gender volleyball team with all these athletic guys. I’d watch them all overhand serve, and wish I could do the same. Thanks to my habit of try, quit, suck, I never learned how to overhand serve.
Flash forward to a week with Shift Adventures. One of our last days, we played a little beach volleyball. Some people overhand served the ball, others (including me) underhand served. Then…… I heard myself say OUT LOUD, can you teach me how to over hand serve? Of course the person coaching that day said YES!!! And a few minutes later, 41 year old me served my first OVER HAND serve of my life!! It was honestly one of my proudest moments EVER!! I’d told myself since age 12, that I couldn’t do it, but here I was actually DOING IT!
I’m still a little shocked that I asked for help. And even more shocked that I didn’t quit after not getting it on my 1st try. That has certainly not been my norm. This is just a small example of how I began to shift my mindset, while hanging out with Shift Adventures.
The other thing that has come from my time in Bucerias with Shift Adventures, is the ability or thought, that it’s ok to put myself on the priority list at all, and even to put myself first!
You see I’m a mum and wife and paramedic. I had fallen into the trap of looking after everyone
else first.
Taking the leap and booking the trip (leaving my family at home) was a HUGE first step, that I didn’t really realize was even a step when I took it. Having a week in Mexico, working out, doing yoga, trying new things, not jumping at my kids every demand, was a refresh I didn’t even know I needed.
Returning home, to a husband and kids, who were now used to asking someone other then ME for help, has allowed me to set a few boundaries. It’s allowed me to take time for me, because the kids now know dad is just as capable as mum.
Having time to workout, or do yoga, or just have quiet time alone, has decreased my desire to cope via stuffing food in my face or wine down my throat. This has organically decreased my calorie intake while at the same time my calories burned is going up!
Which leads us back to pounds and inches lost.
Now for one last aww haa…… pre my Shift Adventures retreat, I thought if I could just lose some weight, I’d be happier. Then once I’m happier (and lighter) I can do all the things I want to do,
more easily.
Huh was I wrong! Post Mexico I haven’t even thought about the weigh scale. Yet here I am, happier! I’m doing some scary/hard things, like starting my own retreat/yoga business. It wasn’t until I came back to work this week, and went to do up my duty belt that I even noticed I have gone from my 1st belt hole, to my 3rd. and truthfully I’m not even a little bit excited about it. (Though I thought I would have been.)
I’m not excited about it, because my whole mindset has shifted. What hole I’m at on my belt doesn’t matter the way it used to. It just happens to be a byproduct of all the rest of the changes I’m making.
Does a person need a 1 week retreat in beautiful sunny Mexico to make these kind of changes in their lives? Maybe not - enough people have done it without a 1 week retreat. But for me, it was what I needed, but didn’t know I needed until it was over.
So if you’re ready for a shift, want to go somewhere warm, want to move your body and try new things, and like the idea of having a great group of people around you - to cheer you on as you do it- think about joining the next Shift Adventures Retreat. I can’t guarantee that you’ll have the same life changing results as me, but I can almost guarantee that you’ll NEVER regret trying and going..
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