Staying Consistent Through Season Changes—Guest Write- Kayla Kregel
I am so excited to have another awesome guest write with Kayla as she shares insight and tips on how to stay consistent through season changes in life.
Kayla is now the head Men’s Cross Country Coach and head Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field Coach at Lindenwood University!
As always with any read on this page- take what you can use, and what resonates with you and share the rest with somebody else!
Staying Consistent Through Season Changes
Life is filled with season changes : Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter..Repeat for as many years we are blessed to live. Season changes also occur in patterns of school, degree, got the job, promoted, fired, relocate, next apartment move, new job, marriage, breakups, kids, new friendships, old friendships, travel, pay off bills and other bills add to the pile, and repeat. Am I right? No matter what life throws at you through the seasons, there is one underlying factor that is a constant - you.
We all have been blessed with this one precious gift from God called life on Earth. Days fly by, seasons are guaranteed to change, but it is you who gets to decide and find out how to stay grounded through it all. During life’s journey, it is crucial that we keep in tune with our true purpose, develop a clear mindset to move with intention through season changes, and I personally have found that physical activity is one of the few things that keep me on track to embrace the changes.
Without going into details, the past five years of my life have embraced many seasons of change: job promotions, moving across the country a couple of times, homeownership, relationship change, siblings getting married and now having kids, death in the family just to name a few; but one thing that hasn’t changed is giving into the emotions to move away from taking care of me. At the end of the day, your health is all that you have, so I pray that no matter what season you are in, you find a way to take care of you.
As a now Head D1 College Cross Country and Track & Field Coach, you’d probably think I am here to tell you to get out and run daily - well only do that if you love running. If you don’t love to run, don’t do it! Yes I said don’t run. My goal is to help you to stay consistent with your physical health through the season changes, so here are some tips that I hope are able to help:
Figure out what you LOVE to do as physical exercise and do that. 30 minutes a day of movement is great! Love to bike, do that. Love to kickbox, do that. Love to walk the dogs, do that. Do not force yourself to fall in love with the next new “fitness fad”. The goal is consistency, not 21 days of hating my life and then you give up until you feel like crap and repeat the cycle.
Be sure to allow active recovery days. Stress + Rest = Results. Many times we go HARD into the physical exercises for many days in a row, become sore and tired, and let one day off become 2 days off become a week off and into “I’ll get back to it on January 1st.” I personally love to lift and would lift hard 7 days a week, but as I get older, I know that my body can’t take that anymore and have worked in 1-3 active recovery days of yoga, foam rolling, and walking.
Take care of you first thing in the morning. Wake up 1 hour earlier and move your body. No one ever regrets a workout, but we do regret when we don’t workout after work or late at night after the kids are asleep. Prioritize what matters and remember, health is wealth; so please take care of you. You deserve it and the world deserves the best version of you.
Give yourself grace. When seasons change, it can be challenging. If that means lowering your workout to only 15-20 minutes on that day of lower intensity, that is okay. Just don’t skip the day. Giving into temptations of skipping makes it harder the next day. Win the day, even if the win is 15 minutes instead of 30; and then get back to it the next day.
Last, always remember your physical health will only be as good as your sleep, hydration, and nutrition. All our bodies are different, but we need to learn to take care of the temple that God gifted you with to be able to live in purpose and intention.
These tips have helped me and I pray will open your mind to how to win through the season’s of life. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Cheers to being our best versions in 2025!