What's Your "Y"?
We recently interviewed our community member, Danielle Hawkins, owner of Danielle Marie Fitness & Nutrition. Danielle was one of FytFeed’s first supporters, running Global Challenges where her clients increased their fitness and nutrition accountability and had fun along the way!
Starting at Square Zero
Danielle’s health and fitness journey began when she was 21 years old and decided to join the army. At that time, Danielle was on a path of self-destruction, and she knew that she needed a big change to break her addiction to drugs and alcohol, become independent, and live a better life. She wanted to clean up her life, but she had zero physical fitness in her life up to that point and wasn’t necessarily motivated by health or fitness. All she knew is that she had a lot of work to do if she wanted to get accepted into basic training. She relied on her recruiters to hold her accountable and help her keep her commitments and increase her physical fitness. Danielle described her fitness as:
“Pathetic. I could barely do a single push up, and I remember trying to smoke cigarettes during the workouts.”
Danielle had to train hard to get to the point where she would pass the initial examination requiring a 12-minute mile, push-ups, and sit-ups, but she made it into basic training and successfully completed boot camp. By the end of basic training, Danielle had dropped 30 pounds, but what was more important was that she learned that exercise was a form of stress relief that she could use instead of drugs and alcohol. Danielle started running and exercising a lot to practice these new outlets for stress relief, and over time, exercise became her new craving. Danielle experienced these new healthy outlets firsthand, and studies show that exercise reduces stress, anxiety, depression, and cravings (1, 2, 3, 4).
Health for Herself
Four years after basic training, Danielle joined a Crossfit gym, and this was the first time she found herself working out and paying attention to her health for herself. In our blog, “Understanding Motivation: Find Your Y”, we discussed the transition of motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic. Both forms of motivation can be very important, and typically, intrinsic motivators are linked to our lifestyle whereas extrinsic motivators are often linked to accomplishments, requirements, or avoiding negative outcomes. We want to point this out because it took Danielle four years before her health and fitness journey became intrinsically motivated. It took four years before she recognized the benefits exercise brought to her personal holistic wellness and decided to prioritized fitness for her own physical and mental health. We want this to encourage anyone who feels like health and fitness just “aren’t for them” or anyone who gets discouraged. It is OK to lean on extrinsic motivation. It is OK if your journey takes years. Every small step will add up.
In 2008, Danielle started working at Bally Total Fitness and found a passion for training. Training enabled her to help people in a safe environment, so she decided to pursue a career as a gym owner and personal trainer. One reason for this decision is because training also inspired Danielle to remain on her own health-oriented path. When Danielle looks back, she recognizes that the fitness community has been there to help her get back on track throughout struggles with depression and alcohol use, and for that reason, it is a community she wants to give back to and be a part of. She stays inspired by watching her clients succeed and being on the wellness journey alongside of them, and she is fulfilled each time a client finds the holistic benefits of turning their health into a lifelong pursuit.
Today, Danielle has 12 years of experience in the health and fitness field and has owned 3 successful businesses. From a personal perspective, she aspires to continue her own fitness journey to maintain what her health and continue helping others. Danielle’s advice: Stop giving up on yourself. Set a goal, follow through, and repeat. It takes time to reach your fitness goals, but the gains go much deeper than physical.
Shout outs
If you resonate with Danielle’s story, know someone who might, or are interested in ladies only fitness, we encourage you to find Danielle’s gym and download the FytFeed app.
We also encourage you to like and share the following accounts: Danielle Marie Fitness, Fitness Compass, and FytFeed for more!