Exercise and training have been such an important piece of my life.
It has brought me confidence, joy, fun and friends. But it’s also brought confusion, injury and ego checking to the nth degree. There have been times I forgot how fun throwing around weights and running ridiculous lengths can be when you’re doing it right!
My story started years ago when I was spending more time with a beer in my hand sitting on the couch watching zombie apocalypse movies than I was enjoying physical pursuits. It’s been a twisting road that really has led me to an amazing place today. I’m still growing and know I always will be, but gosh is it fun now!
It may sound stupid to some, but I found my confidence in the gym. I found my passion in training. I found my truest smile with sweat dripping off my chin and the feeling of lactic acid burning my legs. Okay that sounds a little crazy, but it’s true. There is something so transcendent for me when I exercise. I feel powerful, accomplished and well the best way I can put it is… good.
For a long time however the gym was punishment, not reward or enjoyment. It was the price I paid for that donut or a late-night Taco Bell run. I occasionally still find myself falling into that trope, but not for long.
What changed?
Why did working out become a moment of power and not punishment? It all started when I was in college. In my other book Lose Weight with Your Mind, I talked about how I fixed my internal struggles and gave myself the mental and psychological freedom to move on in life. That was a time of focused mind training and my self-esteem and confidence got jacked! (Excuse the metaphor, I like using them.)
A few years after than I moved to sunny Miami and found myself running the beach, but I was missing something. So, I wandered into the local box, Reebok Crossfit Miami Beach, and got my but kicked. I will never forget how I in about the process of twenty minutes went from being the fit guy running six miles a day to a sweaty, shaking, goo ball of a human being.
It was humbling it was hard and I was shaken. I almost didn’t go back, but I had paid for the month, so I figured why not throw the money away? After that month I had gotten a little stronger, but my mind had regressed. I’d lost that internal confident beat. It’s amazing looking back at it now, but had it not been for a fortuitous run in with my coach at a late-night taco joint, I may have stopped Crossfit then, but the pork belly street fare intervened.
I kept going, but I started implementing my brain training again on the twenty-minute walk to the gym. My affirmations rebuilt my mind while I broke down and re-created my physical self.
Over the years I’ve lived across the country and changed gyms, now building out a home training basement cave, but the one thing that remained was a zeal for learning about exercise and a need for training my confidence. Any times I’ve wavered from the tried and true practice of mental and physical training, something has fallen behind. No more!
deleonstrong.fit is the both a way to reach out and an accountability factor for myself. I'm so excited to share both my wife and I’s day to day training and growth as we continue to pursue our shared passion of training and self-growth.
Sincerely,
Jonathan DeLeon
