Catchup With Coach M - Edition 66 - Two Years of Growth & Intentional Movement

On 11 July, this little blog quietly celebrated its second birthday.

For the past two years, I have had the privilege of sharing information, answering questions, writing about nutrition, training, health, Personal Growth and movement—but I've also shared pieces of my own journey.

After taking a short break during the July school holidays, I realised it was time for another more personal catch-up. Not just on where life has taken me over the past few months, but to remind myself—and especially our newer readers—why I started writing in the first place.

Welcome to Edition 66 of Catchup with Coach M and blog number 127...YES. The mind still sometimes think I am dreaming.

Celebrating life and intentionality

When I started this blog, my goal was never to become the biggest or most technical source of information on the internet.

There are countless experts and scientific journals that can provide pages and pages of research.

My goal was different.

I wanted to explain the things I get asked every day in a way that the average person could understand. I wanted to make health, nutrition, Personal Growth and movement feel less intimidating. And along the way, I wanted to share the reality behind my own journey.

Part of that was accountability.

Part of it was honesty in my journey

But mostly, it wanted to remind people that every single journey is different.

You cannot compare your chapter two to someone else's chapter twenty.

You cannot compare your body to somebody else's.

You cannot compare your progress to mine.

The same applies to training programmes.

No two athletes are the same.

No two injuries are the same.

No two lives are the same.

There may be similarities, but no journey is ever identical.

Every Person out there need to sit with their OWN WHY, their OWN GOAL and Their OWN STORY

Movement Has Always Been Part of My Story

Looking back, movement has always been part of who I am.

I was that child who simply couldn't sit still.

At five years old I started dancing, which eventually led me into rhythmic gymnastics. That journey took me all the way to representing South Africa—a fact that surprises most people because very few know that I earned SA colours in rhythmic gymnastics.

Coaching also started early.

Even as a young athlete I found myself teaching, helping and coaching others. Looking back now, I realise coaching was never just something I did—it was always going to become part of who I am.

Starting Over... Again

Fast forward to two years ago.

I had just returned from a sabbatical overseas.

Instead of coming home full of momentum, I came home with an injury that needed rehabilitation.

For what felt like the hundredth time in my life, I had to start over.

Starting over is frustrating.

It makes you question yourself.

It makes you wonder why your body won't cooperate.

But it also forced me to realise something important.

I am the poster child of my own business.

Active Living 4 All isn't just a logo or a website.

I am the brand.

If I tell people to be patient, I need to be patient.

If I coach consistency, I need to live consistency.

If I ask people to trust the process, I need to trust it too.

One thing my athletes know is that I very seldom give someone a workout or set that I haven't done myself first. I run through sessions to make sure they flow, that they make sense and that they achieve what they're supposed to.

The same principles I coach others are the principles I try to live every day.

• Consistency over perfection.

• Fuel your body to become stronger, not simply lighter.

• Protect your muscle, that is the key to metabolism

• Reduce unnecessary stress and cortisol where you can.

• Most importantly...Be intentional.

• Don't simply rush through a workout because it's on your calendar.

• Think about every movement.

• Move with purpose.

The Wake-Up Call About Movement

There was another lesson waiting for me when I returned home.

While overseas I was naturally walking close to 30,000 steps every day.

Not because I was training harder.

Simply because I was living differently.

Coming home made me realise something that I now speak about often.

Many people believe they're active because they exercise three or four times a week for 45–60 minutes.

But outside of those sessions?

They sit.

• Behind desks.

• Behind steering wheels.

• Behind computers.

• Behind televisions.

The reality is that many people are training regularly but still living predominantly sedentary lives.

Exercise and movement are not the same thing.

They're both important.

It's About More Than Running

As runners, our biggest challenge usually isn't getting enough steps.

Running takes care of that.

The bigger challenge is everything else.

• Strength training.

• Mobility.

• Rehabilitation.

• Pre-habilitation.

• Recovery.

These are the foundations that keep us healthy enough to continue doing what we love.

Ironically, neglecting those basics was one of the reasons I picked up my own injury.

Sometimes we all need reminding that the glamorous sessions only work because of the less glamorous ones.

Daily Intentional Movement

So on 29 July 2024 I made a decision.

One simple non-negotiable.

Daily intentional movement.

Not daily hard training.

Not daily running.

Not daily gym sessions.

Just intentional movement in a balanced way.

Every single day.

Some days that meant a run.

Some days it meant strength work.

Other days it meant yoga.

Stretching.

Foam rolling.

Walking.

Swimming.

Cycling.

Or simply moving enough to remind my body that it was built to move. Over my life span I have always moved regularly, but never daily and intentional.

I made Two rules.

A minimum of 20 minutes, recorded on Strava.

It has to be structured and in my diary - an appointment that cannot be moved

Twenty minutes wasn't overwhelming.

Twenty minutes could be split throughout the day.

Twenty minutes removed the excuses.

But most importantly...

Those two rules created accountability.

That single decision carried me through surgeries.

It carried me through cancer treatment.

It carried me through setbacks that, in previous years, would probably have broken my momentum completely.

What Are We Celebrating?

So what exactly are we celebrating this month?

Yes, we're celebrating two years of writing this blog.

But we're also celebrating two years of daily intentional movement.

Two years of showing up.

Not perfectly.

Just consistently.

Walking.

Running.

Cycling.

Swimming.

Strength training.

Stretching.

Recovering.

Moving.

Every single one of those sessions counted.

Quiet Goals Becoming Reality

Something interesting happens when you become consistent.

The goals quietly become bigger.

Not because someone tells you they should.

But because you begin believing they might actually be possible.

Over the past few weeks I have ticked off goals that have lived quietly in the background for a very long time.

The back-to-back runs in Knysna after it being a crash and burn experience the last time I tried it.

And then...

My First ultra marathon. 50km

Very few people know this, but before this year I had entered five ultras throughout my running journey.

I never got to the start line.

Every single time I had to sell my entry because of illness, injury or some other health setback.

Five attempts.

Five disappointments.

This year was different.

This year I wasn't running to prove anything to anyone.

I was running because I could, I was running because there are so many people who walked the path I did and cannot, I was running because moving your body experiencing the sweat and discomfort builds character. And After everything my body has endured over this past 10 years, simply being able to still move had become a privilege.

Growth Takes Time

Today's blog isn't really about the races nor the fact that its been done.

It's about growth.

Real growth is rarely dramatic.

It's built one ordinary day at a time.

It took me nearly two years of showing up consistently, being intentional and navigating more than a few unexpected detours before I finally looked at myself and thought...

"I can actually do this."

Growth changes more than your fitness.

It changes how you see yourself.

How you approach goals.

How you respond to setbacks.

How you define success.

Choosing My Focus

Getting to where I am today wasn't easy.

It took two years of intentional effort.

Before that, it took years and years of simply refusing to stop moving.

This year, life gave me every reason to quit.

A cancer diagnosis.

Treatment.

Surgeries.

A gut setback that, quite literally, took me back five years in the space of 24 hours.

I couldn't always control what happened to me.

But I could control where I placed my focus and how I react to the situation.

I made a conscious decision that cancer would not become the centre of my identity.

My focus stayed on one thing.

Daily intentional movement.

Not because movement fixed everything.

But because movement reminded me every day that I was alive and I AM still living.

Still Writing My Story

I'm not sharing this because I've somehow "arrived."

Far from it.

I'm still learning.

I'm still growing.

I'm still setting new goals.

I still get things wrong

I still discover things about myself daily

I've been running for nearly twenty years.

Before that, there were years of dancing, gymnastics and coaching.

I have completed more than 100 official half marathons and accumulated thousands of kilometres along the way.

But none of those achievements happened because I tried to become someone else.

I never chased somebody else's timeline.

I never chased somebody else's story.

I simply kept writing my own.

The same has been true over the last two years.

I haven't tried to build someone else's business.

I haven't tried to become someone else's version of success.

I've simply continued building Active Living 4 All in a way that reflects who I am and what I believe.

And perhaps that's the biggest lesson these last two years have taught me.

Your story doesn't need to look like anyone else's.

Your pace doesn't need to match theirs.

Your timeline doesn't need to make sense to anyone else.

Because your journey was never meant to be compared.

It was always meant to be lived.

Thank you for reading these blogs over the past two years.

Whether you've been here since Edition 1 or you've only just found this community, thank you for allowing me to share both the science and the stories.

Here's to continuing to learn, to move with intention, and to writing the next chapter—one day, one workout, and one step at a time.

Until next week…

Keep moving. Keep growing. Keep writing your own story.