09/06/2026
Last September, I started “Rachel’s Reflections”- a Sunday morning blog to connect with our followers and reflect weekly on conversations, thoughts, reminders, and/or what happens behind the doors here at Mobility. I’ve shared stories from my own experiences, stories of the women who inspire me every day, and stories of encouragement with messages that we all need to hear sometimes.
What started as a weekly blog lost momentum after time. Over the last little while, several women have asked me when I was going to start writing them again… and then, a stranger came up to me at the Coffee Bean to say she missed my reflections and always loved reading them. That was a bit of a wow moment for me…. someone I didn’t know personally telling me that something I had written mattered to her. I needed this reminder, and so here I am again. And it seems absolutely fitting that my first reflection back is about exactly that…. Starting again.
So, for this week…. Let’s talk about September and about starting again.
This is a month where we start to recommit to ourselves after a little (or big) hiatus. Some of us may have taken the summer off, some of us may have put ourselves on the back burner for the last year… or two….. or five……… or ten. But often, when September comes, it gives many of us a little spark and a little hope. There’s that little voice saying “ok, it’s time…”. Time to get back into a routine. Time to start moving again. Time to eat a little better. Time to make our health a priority again.
Some of us will act on it. Some of us will think about it. And some of us will decide we’re going to completely overhaul our entire lives on Monday morning….. exercise 6 days a week, meal prep everything, drink three litres of water, stop eating sugar, get eight hours of sleep every night, and become a different person by the end of the week. 😅
I have been a fitness coach for over 20 years, and I was a nutrition coach for 8. I’ve watched hundreds of women start and stop and start again. I have also watched women reach goals they never thought possible and then lose their momentum. And no judgement. I’m one of them!! But I’ve watched women disappear for months or years because life happened. And ladies, I’ve watched women feel so guilty about stopping that the guilt itself became one of the things that has kept them from coming back.
You are not alone. I’ve been that woman. I know what to do. I know how important exercise is. I know how nutrition works. I understand habits. I know exactly how much better I feel physically and mentally when I’m taking care of myself… and STILL there are times that I just don’t do it. Anyone who knows me knows that I have periods where I’ve been incredibly consistent and periods where I completely push my own nutrition and fitness to the side. I’ve gained weight. I’ve lost weights. I’ve lost motivation. I’ve gotten injured. I’ve gotten busy. I have times of high stress where my own health moves further down the priority list than I would like to admit. I start. I stop. I start again. I’m open about my own struggles and I believe that relatability is one of the things that makes me a great coach.
But let’s talk about this.
You all know the expression “I fell off the wagon”, and I’m sure most of us have used it more than once. But you know what? I don’t think there should be a f*cking wagon when it comes to this stuff. Because that wagon implies that health is this straight and narrow path and that you’re either on it or off it. You’re either doing well, or you’ve failed. You’re either exercising 5 days a week or you’re doing nothing. You’re either eating “good” or you’re eating “bad”. But that’s just NOT how real life works!!
Maybe something stressful happens. Maybe your work schedule changes. Maybe you’re caring for kids or aging parents. Maybe money gets tight. Maybe you get injured and suddenly can’t exercise the way you used to. Maybe you’re struggling with mental health. Maybe hormones are kicking your ass. Maybe you have an addiction to sugar and/or an unhealthy relationship with food. Maybe you’re grieving. Maybe life has changed. OR MAYBE it’s just a random Tuesday and one little thing knocks you out of your “routine”. You miss a workout, then you miss another. You order pizza and indulge in ice cream. And then you think- ‘I already messed up the week, so f*ck it…. I’ll just start again Monday. Did you ever hear the expression- “if you get one flat tire, you don’t slash the other three.”? Tuck that away. 😉
But what happens next? Monday comes and you’re tired. So, maybe next Monday. Then the next. And suddenly months go by!
Ladies, life happens. So, maybe instead of expecting ourselves to stay on some perfectly straight and narrow path we need to make the path wider. Wide enough for vacations and birthday cake. Wide enough for a week off from exercise. Wide enough for holidays and summer and stressful jobs and sick kids. Wide enough for injury, grief, hormones, or just a sh*tty month! None of these things erase everything you did up to that point. None of them mean you have to be more strict and start over.
And while I’m here let’s talk about shame and guilt.
I regularly run into women I’ve coached over the years at the grocery store who immediately feel the need to explain what’s in their cart. Or I’ll see someone in a restaurant, and they’ll joke about what they’re eating as if I’m secretly judging them. Girl, I’m probably having dessert too! I PROMISE you- I do not care what’s in your grocery cart! I’m not scanning your groceries to make sure you have enough protein and veggies. I’m not calculating your macros at the restaurant! If I stop to say “Hey! How are you?”… it’s because I genuinely want to know how you are! Not how much you weigh or if you’ve been hitting the gym or whether you’re eating right. I care about YOU.
I used to have a picture taped up above the scale in my old nutrition coaching office that said **kthescale. Because even when nutrition and weight loss was literally my job, I never wanted women to feel as though their worth was attached to a number. So when we start again, we need to let go of all of the bu****it noise. Let go of the guilt. Let go of the shame. Let go of the embarrassment. Let go of the feeling that you have to make up for lost time because you don’t.
You don’t need to punish yourself with brutal workouts or back-to-back classes because you took the summer off. You don’t need to restrict your food because your jeans don’t fit the way they did last year. And you definitely don’t need to wait until you’ve found enough motivation to completely change your life.
Start small. Instead of asking yourself- “how much can I do?”…. maybe ask yourself “what can I realistically keep doing?”. Maybe right now that’s two classes a week. Maybe it’s a 15 minute walk after supper. Maybe it’s eating breakfast, drinking more water, or simply standing up from your desk every hour. It doesn’t have to be impressive… it needs to be manageable enough that you can repeat it. And when you’re ready, add something else. Then another. After all these years of coaching, one thing I know for sure is that the women who make lasting changes aren’t necessarily the women who are the most motivated. They’re the women who build habits. They’re the ones who keep doing the small things. They’re the ones who eventually learn that consistency doesn’t mean perfection. And guess what? Maybe consistency doesn’t mean you never stop… I think it means recognizing when you’ve drifted away from something that matters to you and choosing to come back. Just like I’m doing with this blog. I stopped and now I’m starting again. No guilt required.
If you’re reading this and you’ve been thinking about starting something again too, I hope you give yourself some grace. Whether you stopped three weeks ago or ten years ago, you haven’t missed your chance and you don’t have to fix everything today. You don’t have to make up for lost time and you don’t have to punish yourself for stopping. You just have to be willing to start again.
If you don’t know where to start, reach out to me. You can reach out to me personally or send a message here to our Mobility page to chat with one of our coaches. Just know that there is absolutely zero judgement here. You don’t have to get in shape before you come. You don’t have to explain why you’ve been gone. You don’t need to apologize for anything. We can simply figure out what the first manageable step looks like for you. 🤗
And if you’re not ready to reach out- that’s ok too! Do one small thing today. Take the walk. Drink the water. Book a class. Stretch for 10 minutes. Whatever it is, make it small enough that you can do it again. 💗
Then do it again. And again. 💕💕
That’s how we start. And sometimes, that’s also how we start again.
Until next Sunday my friends,
🩷 Rachel, xo
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