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Kacy Duke Fitness Consultant • Personal Trainer • www.kacydukefitness.com 
I was a very active child. My mom really knew then to try to keep me as busy as possible. A day for me then would be track and field in the daytime with school, and then dance in the afternoon. It was kind of interesting to have those two different physical activities because one was definitely power and athleticism and other one was a sense of grace and stature. They both really blended well for me. When I look back, it was setting me up for the fitness field. I don’t come from a family of healthy eaters, and they were definitely struggling with weight loss. But I was always different and drawn to being very physical.
I was married young, I had a child young, and I was teaching classes and my body was being pounded – I was so in the physical element of it that I was not as balanced in other areas emotionally and spiritually. I’m not saying in a religious sense, but just a matter of a great sense of my own self. For so much, I was looking so externally. It’s like people who are in the gym everyday and they are doing the same work out and they seem to never like what they look like. That is because there is an imbalance there. I had to learn that early on when I had a really good dose of burnout. I had to look in the mirror one day and say what is going on with you Kacy? My book is called The Show It Love Workout and it is my life’s work. And Show it Love is the mission that I am on. There are three elements of self that need to be very much in balance to get the life, the body and mind set that you want:
The emotional is the mindset. It is how you look and feel about your body in its current form however flawed that might be so that you can go about changing it. So it is understanding where you are. Whenever someone comes to me for the first time, I say okay give me your wish list. They say I hate my butt, I hate my thighs, I hate my this… I say, “turn to the mirror and really look at yourself. Look at the things you want to change, and say that you would like to change it, but the first thing you have to do is say, ‘thank you body and I love you body’”. This body, this shell, that our souls and spirits are going around in has held us up through everything – through childbirth, illness, break-ups, and all kinds of situations. We inflated and deflated all the time to try give it what we want, and it obeys every time with our lack of appreciation. We don’t treat it like our best girlfriend.
The spiritual is how you get your motivation. What do I do so that I can get the body and life that I want? How do I keep myself so motivated so that I am being supportive of my emotional self? You have to be able to say “I can do it”.
The physical is the last component, not the first. On January 1st many people say, “I am going go out there, I am going to do...” and it does not last beyond that month. When you’re balanced in the 3 elements of self, particularly when the emotional self is in balance, you always have that foundation to go back to because everybody goes off track. The key is to have the tools to get back on track.
Women often forget the goddess within, and that they have this warrior woman inside of them that is there that can take them wherever they need to go. We have been so beaten down because we are over-givers. We can give to our mates, we can give to our kids, but when it comes to us we take that back seat as if we are going to get a medal for it. The best thing you can do is honor yourself. Show it love. Celebrate the body you have to get the body you want. Be excited about who you are in its current form because you have the potential right there to work it out. That is why you have to say I am, I can, I do. The idea of Show it Love is a celebration of accepting you.
Come clean with yourself. This is when we say we do not have the time to exercise. What you really are saying is that you have a sedentary lifestyle. So you are tired because you haven’t been physically active at all. So what you need to do is say, “I am going to do something that is going to help me to balance that sedentary lifestyle. I am going to walk home, I am going take the stairs”. There are little things that you can do, but you have to come clean. Excuses do not define you. For every excuse, I can come up with a remedy. You are basically saying to your body and life that I am worthy.
I do a thing called Underground Groove that is a lot fun. I have this class that I have been doing for years that is by email-invite only. I get emails from people who want to be a part of it. So nobody knows the venue until two or three days before because I change it every time, and you have to bring someone that you feel really needs it. You can do it, but in order to get in you have to bring a friend. |
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