The Fit Girl Boss Continuum: The Best Way To Prevent Burnout

The Fit Girl Boss Continuum: The Best Way To Prevent Burnout

"Fit Girl Boss is a hedge against Burnout, with Balance being an intermediate value." - Me. ⁠ ⁠

 

YES, I STOLE THIS. Do you recognize it?⁠ ⁠

⁠To get the most of this article, I need to dive a bit into CrossFit and some of the fundamental literature and ideas that helped build CrossFit up as the worlds' best way to get "fit".

And even before that, I feel it necessary to explain a little bit about where this is coming from and why I chose to write about this.

BODZii is a Nutrition & Fitness program for women, on a mission to creating a tribe of Fit Girl Bosses. Let's break that down a bit:

What's a Girl Boss?

Although the term "Girl Boss" has been thrown around for some years now, there are definitely some different opinions behind this term and how (even if) we should be using it. Mostly coming down to the opinion that the word "girl" shouldn't even be in there, or why can't women just be a "boss"? I've even read some articles saying using the word "girl" infantilizes women.

In my blunt and honest opinion, terms like this easily summarize and encompass what (some) women want to identify with. And we might be getting a bit too sensitive if we need a long-tail, wordy explanation to make sure we don't offend anyone. Yes, we can just be a "boss". And yes, you can call yourself a "woman boss" if that's less creepy for you.

But "girl boss" rolls off the tongue. And it's turned into sort of a "club" in the past 8 years. More than that, what matters is how we define ourselves, not what others think.

The BODZii FGB Tribe defines the girl boss as a confident, capable woman who pursues her own ambitions instead of working for others or otherwise settling in life. A girl boss runs her own sh*t. No, she doesn't have to own a business, but she cares about her roles and responsibilities as a professional woman, and wants to show up every day to give her best. She works for herself in the sense that everything she does is to better herself and her relationships. The girl boss has a lot on her plate and she works daily to manage it all. This could include (but is not limited to)

  • Owning a business
  • Having a "side hustle"
  • Working multiple jobs
  • Climbing the corporate ladder
  • Works a 9-5 job she is passionate about
  • Also has kids
  • Is a caretaker, etc.

What's a FIT girl boss?

Simply put, an FGB is a woman who encompasses all of the above but is also fit.

Ok, so what does fit mean? This is where we get into CrossFit.

CrossFit is a training program that is on a mission to help people get fit. The question is then, what does "fit" mean? And how can we measure if we're fit or not? I'm going to share with you the definition that the CrossFit Journal provides us and what is taught in their training seminars. This is something that I lived by for a very long time.

CrossFit has three fitness standards. The first is that there are 10 recognized general physical skills. They are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The former CEO of CrossFit says, "you are as fit as you are competent in each of these 10 skills. A regimen develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these 10 skills."

The second standard is that "fitness requires an ability to perform well at all tasks, even unfamiliar tasks and tasks combined in infinitely varying combinations". If you're familiar with CrossFit, this is where the idea of functional fitness really came from. The idea that life will throw anything at you, so you should train in all conditions for any task.

The third and final standard is that "total fitness, the fitness that CrossFit promotes and develops, requires competency and training in each of these three pathways or engines." The three engines being your phosphagen (or phosphocreatine) pathway, the glycolytic (or lactate) pathway, and the oxidative (or aerobic) pathway. I'll save diving into that for a rainy day. Or, just google it.

Okay so that's all... a lot.

And what's running through your mind at this point is, "wait, so I have to do all that if i want to be fit?".

Well, yes. But that shouldn't be the question you're asking. The question really is "I have to do all that if I want to be an FGB?"

To that, I would say no. Because that's where the balance comes in. As someone who dedicated a lot of her time trying to be "the fittest", based on this definition, this is a lesson that took me a long time to learn - I did not have to be the fittest person in order to be a fit girl boss.

An FGB is someone who prioritizes their fitness, nutrition, and overall health in pursuit to be the best and fittest version of themselves to get ahead and boost their career or professional lives.

In other words, an FGB does the absolute best she can while juggling everything she has on her plate. That is not going to mean you're going to be the fittest person on earth. It means you're going to be the fittest version of yourself. And to take it a step further, here are other values of fitness that matter to an FGB:

  • mental health
  • mental clarity
  • productivity
  • creativity
  • motivation
  • passion

The great thing here is that all these things are an awesome byproduct of you training some (or all) or the 10 general physical skills mentioned above. Don't take my word for it, just ask yourself - how much more focused do you feel after going for a 15-minute walk or jog in the fresh air vs. just sitting in front of a screen all day?

General physical skill: Cardiovascular respiratory endurance

Awesome byproduct: mental clarity

The FGB Continuum

The Health Continuum was created by the founder of CrossFit. ⁠

The Health Continuum (or the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness Continuum) showcases a scale to determine one’s health levels based on certain measurements - blood pressure, body fat %, bone density, etc.⁠ (see figure below)

Found in the "What Is Fitness?" article in the CrossFit Journal,

"We have observed that nearly every measurable value of health can be placed on a continuum that ranges from sickness to wellness to fitness

Done right, fitness provides a great margin of protection against the ravages of time and disease. Where you find otherwise, examine the fitness protocol, especially diet. Fitness is and should be “super-wellness.” Sickness, wellness, and fitness are measures of the same entity. A fitness regimen that does not support health is not CrossFit."

So, clearly, this is important. Health is important.

However, we see time and time again that women will sacrifice their health for their careers. Our blood pressure creeps up because we're stressed. Our body fat will slowly increase because "we don't have time to go to the gym". Our muscle mass decreases because we're sitting most of the day and don't use them. And because of all that, we creep closer and closer to burnout - which is the total opposite result of our initial intention.

You going to bed 3 hours later results in you sleeping for days because you're burnt out.

You sitting for hours results in you taking more time off because you're burnt out.

You not going to the gym "because you're too busy" results in your business slowing down because you cannot be present.

So if the Health Continuum showcases how to get to optimal health or "super-wellness", what does the FGB Continuum look like? ⁠

I thought it was a perfect way to showcase a similar scale to determine how easily we can fall into burnout if we're not careful. ⁠ ⁠ As busy women, we're always striving for balance. We think that if we can create some balance, we'll never get burnt out. However - as a scale works - the slightest amount of time gone neglecting ourselves tips us closer towards burnout. ⁠ ⁠ But what if we didn't see "well balanced" as the gold standard for busy women? What if we started pushing "FIT & SUCCESSFUL" (being an FGB) as the goal? We'd then have a much larger hedge against ever being burnt out. ⁠

Being an FGB gives us constant growth in our health, fitness, mental health, relationships, business, and professional lives without ever getting close to a point of burnout.

Remember, fitness and nutrition isn't separate from your career. It's a part of it. It is your responsibility. It isn't just something else on your plate. It's allowing you to work smarter, more efficiently, and more sustainably.

Are you ready to be a FGB? Are you a fit for our program? Let's find out! ⁠

 

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