Exercises come in all shapes and sizes: Final words of encouragement from Florida

Hello everyone, thanks for hanging with me all summer! It's been great and I really appreciate the amount of people following my little space of the internet.

Hopefully this space has been an encouragement to you to get out there and get active. There is a world of possibilities out there and I just want to stress that you don't need to be a super athlete or a hardcore enthusiast to get into a sport or activity.

Most of you have been commenting that what I do looks super fun but it's way too hard or intimidating for you but I would encourage you by saying that it's not the case! 

Look at Tough Mudder for example. Tough Mudder was arguably the pinnacle of my summer workout schedule and I have already laid out to you in great detail how difficult it was to finish that course. 

Along the way to the finish line I met so many different people from different walks of life. Sure there were your fitness competitors, your athletes and your runners but along the way I also saw heavier people, the elderly and the generally unfit climb their way up and down that mountain.

One of my good friends summed up the experience best and I feel like it would resonate with alot of you who are hesitant to try new things. These are his thoughts on the Tough Mudder experience: 

"This is for the prize that doesn't fade. 

To my #toughmudder crew: it's no cliché when I say I could not have done it without you. I literally could not have made it through the 16km of prolonged exposure to the wet, absolutely chilling, mud, water, wind and rain, the hills -- oh the hills! -- the calf cramps, quad cramps, hamstring cramps, the thoughts of quitting and the super tall, slippery, daunting obstacles where I needed a hand, or two, or three to get me up... all this was not possible without you there. The camaraderie and solidarity we shared is something I will never forget. 

Guys, this was rough, it was tough but welcome to the finishers club.

And to the fellow mudderer whom I've never met, who offered a gel pack to this sad, sorry, fellow stretching his cramping calves in the rain: I salute you and you've got my utmost gratitude."

I guess what I'd like to leave you with this summer is the encouragement to go out there and try new things. Sure you might suck at it initially but find some friends who are willing to do it with you and grow together. No professional athlete ever started out with the ability to dominate. They had to learn to crawl, walk and run just like the rest of us. So in your personal fitness journeys, as long as you are having fun it doesn't really matter! 

By the time you read this I will be surfing the waves of Daytona Beach but I just wanted to thank you all for a great summer. Get out there and be inspired! A healthy lifestyle is available to everyone who is willing to reach out and grab it.