Life is worth the pain

You collapse, completely exhausted from the physical onslaught you've just endured. 

Your heart races, your chest is on fire and sweat pours from virtually every area of your body. 

You are completely and utterly gassed.

As you lie there trying desperately to catch your breath, a unique feeling suddenly washes over you. You feel excited, you feel pumped, you feel unbeaten.

You just pushed your body as hard and as long as you possibly could have and you're still standing (sitting) to tell the tale. 

By all accounts, you should feel terrible, broken, beaten, but you don't, you feel empowered.

In that moment you realize why you do it, why you push yourself. Because of that feeling of sheer accomplishment that you get when you know you did something you didn't know was possible. 

Sure, you suffered doing it, but when you came out the other side you felt more alive than ever before.

It's then that you realize that this is what makes life worth living.

No pain, No gain

When you find yourself living life on cruise control it's usually because you've stopped pushing yourself to uncomfortable places.

It's in these uncomfortable places that we find out who we really are. We fight back our fears and self-doubts, strive to reach further than we thought we could and truly begin to feel alive.

The problem is, we don't like to feel uncomfortable, it goes against everything that feels normal and natural. 

We're drawn to easier, more comfortable lives and don't want to be forced out of our safety bubbles.

This is why it's so hard to get started at getting in shape and why it's even harder to commit to seeing it through.

It's the first two to three weeks of working out that are always the most gruelling. They make us sweat the most, hurt the most, and crave our old, easier lifestyle the most. 

It's when everything we do is the most uncomfortable and the most difficult, but it's also why they're our most valuable.

What's over the hump?

They say it takes three weeks to make a habit, but what they don't say is how terribly hard those first three weeks will be.

Getting past that first bit may be one of the hardest things you ever have to do.

You'll be tempted to quit early and go home, to stay in bed and sleep for one more hour or bail on your plan altogether, but if you can stick it out and push yourself to stay committed, it will become one the greatest things you ever do for yourself.

After those first gut-wrenching few weeks, a transformation will occur. Not just a physical transformation, but a mental one too.

At some point, something in your brain will switch (snap) and you will begin to crave the punishment.

You will begin to crave that feeling of pushing your body and mind past the limits of where they were before. You will crave the energy you feel, and the accomplishments you achieve. 

Mostly you will crave the confidence you gain as every day you begin to feel better than you did the day before.

Building a better you

It seems cheesy to say, but it's hard to ignore the feeling you get from being in better shape.

It's only been a few weeks of my fitness challenge, but already I'm seeing the positive effects.

My diet of only healthy fruits, vegetables, fats, and meats has totally changed how I feel day to day. 

I don't feel heavy or bloated no matter how much I eat (and I eat a lot these days), I don't get the same afternoon crashes I used to and I've got more energy than ever before.

My workout routine has completely shifted my internal clock so now I'm up earlier and getting more done before 10 a.m. than I used to before 1 p.m. on most days. I'm feeling stronger and more confident as I'm able to push myself further every single day.

More than all of that, I am finding I'm happier than I've been in a long time.

I don't know if it's the workout, the diet or the added energy, but I can say without a doubt that I am feeling better than I ever have before.

I always thought people who worked out seemed to be more confident and more positive because they were compensating for something. That they needed the gym because it filled in something that they were missing. 

Now, I think that perhaps we're all missing something and fitness is just another way for us to find it.

By working out and by pushing ourselves outside our comfort zones, we're challenging ourselves to be better every day. 

We're committing to making sacrifices in order to build better versions of ourselves and by doing so, we're discovering stronger, happier versions of ourselves and the lives we aim to lead.

Check back with me as I continue my journey to tune up my body and educate myself on what makes a better more balanced me.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.