Fitness for #RealLife Series

I believe exercise and fitness should be a fun adventure!  
What are some of the ways that you love to stay healthy and fit?  Where do you most enjoy being active?  Let's explore it all in this blog series.

This is the first post in a series about Fitness for #RealLife.  Sign-up to receive each new blog post delivered conveniently to your inbox!

Playing With Friends and Family

Who didn't love to play as a child?  I think we all did right?  How can we continue to play and enjoy physical fitness as we grow older?  How do we keep playing?  I love this quote from the movie Tag

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” 
I grew up loving to play sport and was thankful to have the opportunity to continue to do that through five years of college.  Now as an adult I have enjoyed finding ways to still play with others!  I love group activities for that external accountability to show up and do something together.

We have found awesome opportunities over the years to play including 5ks, dodgeball events, and most recently rucking!  
Community Dodgeball Tournament
Did you grow up playing sports?  

Solo or Group Fitness?

Superhero Themed 5k With FriendsMy husband and I are both pretty competitive, so you can see how we ended up on this dodgeball squad above (actually it was for charity to throw things at friends, so of course we were in).  

Even when I have joined alone in events like local 5 or 10k events, it's always fun to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.  I did Crossfit once and so appreciated the community aspect of their program but honestly wasn't ready for the intensity of it, haha

I love to swim but haven't been consistent in lap swimming on my own.  It can be a challenge to do some types of training as well since I travel often for work.  I enjoy getting out to walk and enjoy finding safe places to do that when I am traveling.  Heck, that's just good adventuring, right?

Are you more of a group or solo activity person when it comes to fitness?

Sharing Inspiration

Run Your Tutu Off 5k WalkTo me, fitness for #RealLife is an excellent way to live my adventure life.  How I have fun, I am helping my body stay healthy, I hope to be around friends, and to inspire myself and others.  I am setting new goals, trying new things, and staying active every chance I get.

Have you tried ax throwing for instance?  Sorry bowling leagues, this is the new cool kids league to join!  

So whatever sports or fitness activities you find yourself drawn to I encourage you to be active and have so much fun playing while you do.

I hope that you sign-up to receive each new adventure that I share delivered conveniently to your inbox!  Jump right over and check out my Rucking Fitness Adventure next!

I look forward to hearing about your fitness adventures as well, let's connect wherever you are on the social interwebs! 

Have you read my story of how I came to be on my wellness journey?   Check out my story here!


Information courtesy of Echo Schneider

1 Comment

  1. Great blog post! I LOVE skiing. It's the only thing that makes winter up north worth it. I also love hiking. I'm not much of a competitor, except with myself 🙂 Mostly it's just anything I can do while out in nature.

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Meet Echo Schneider, Chief Adventure Officer

 
Overworked, burned out, and with waning loyalty to an industry that had lost its way and was no longer true to itself.  Of course, career burnout was at an all-time high in my sector and amongst the worst in any field.  It wasn’t all even just about work, though my perfectionism often got the best of me there more than other parts of my life.  I look back and see that I was overwhelmed and questioning so many areas of my life.  Was I doing the right things? From diet to products I bought, from how I was involved in the community to time I was spending with family, and from how I was walking out my faith and showing up in a meaningful way to my world. In this craziness is where I found myself.
 
Healthcare (watch my fingers make air quotes as I say that word and use the term loosely at best) in the US had long been bought and paid for and was no longer masking their symptom management and disease maintenance focus.  It had lost its focus on health; they could give you a pill or cut you open.  But to nurture your health and foster your body’s God-given ability to heal itself, they no longer knew how to do that.  Or worse, no longer desired to be in the business of prevention and healing.
 
As so many professional people were doing in the modern economy, we, as healthcare professionals, we’re doing more with less.  Mandatory overtime, poor ergonomics, and complete lack of an environment to practice self-care were the norm.  And to make it worse?  Because of our specific industry, we added in a loss of our medical freedoms just to stay and do our jobs.  The days of job security were long gone, and I watched in fear as friends and colleagues in sectors across the board were being laid off just to help top leaders move the stock up for shareholders.  How terrifying that this could be the reward for lifelong dedication and hard work!
 
At home, it didn't feel much better.  I fought to find a non-existent work-life balance and to be present while feeling exhausted (have you ever come home from work to fall asleep on the couch and finally be awoken when your Mom calls? Tell me this isn’t just me!).  I was disappointed in myself seeing my self-care fall away, time with friends and family slipping by, and I wasn’t spending the time I wanted serving with my church family or in my community.  
 
Add to that the confusion and frustration of what should have been simple daily choices.  What foods should I be eating? Is this trendy thing something I should try?  Wait, is the product good or bad, I paid more for it, but I feel like I saw an article on them that there was a recall or they were green-washing.  So frustrating and such a time-suck trying to keep up and have the health and abundance our family deserved!  I felt like at every turn that I was running to keep up and felt like I ultimately just found more of the same lies in the name of profits, and more ways my health was ultimately paying the price, yet again.
 
How could anyone thrive in this culture when even those who were well educated and seeking out something better faced with such daunting challenges?  I know, first-world problems, but I longed to create something more, a legacy for myself and others.  To break generational chains and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it stuck in this rat-race.
 
Set the stage for that something.  I have, for so much of my life, been interested in learning, growing, and being a student of personal development.  From an investment with top leadership development companies through their programs for years to Law of Attraction to Conscious Language and so many others, I was finding the mentorship and teaching I needed to make the changes I so desperately desired.  
 
There wasn’t an overnight shift or an immediate awareness to change, but I began to find my path slowly and as a result, was investing myself in new ways.  I was raised by a wise and visionary Mother who had shown me what it was to be an entrepreneur.  I always admired that title and was drawn to it in many ways.  As I dabbled in businesses from my youth through college and beyond, I was picking up pieces of freedom and a stage where I could work for myself to create something new.  
 
As the years went on, I kept pushing myself in that path.  I was helping others, and I was welcoming a team of like-minded friends and family to come with me.  This was possible; we were doing it!  It wasn’t easy, we were doing a side-hustle while still being full-time professionals and wives and Mothers, but we were doing it none the less.

I'm so excited to have found a platform to speak truth. To show up for others in "true health" in ways that I didn’t know could exist when I started down this path.  But I know now that we don't have to settle any longer.  Any of us, friends!  It's time to live the great adventure that you were made for.
 
Now it’s time to move beyond business beyond vocation.  Now we are building a blessing.  That has so many meanings, one being the definition of “a herd of unicorns,” in case you didn’t know.  I was given the title of ‘unicorn’ from a dear friend when she came to know me and saw what I was capable of achieving.  And now it’s my turn to see that light in you.  Join me, and together, we can create a community and movement with a vision to change it all.
 
I don't care what your background is.  What education you received growing up in business, finances, or medicine.  Those things don't matter.  We are walking a new path to freedom in all areas of our lives.
 
I'm writing a new future and destiny for myself and my family, and I won't journey alone.  A mentor taught me to carry the confidence that God has called me to rise, but I will not rise alone.
 
I'm reaching out my hand to you (don't worry, I recently used a plant-based hand sanitizer) so that you are not alone; we will do this together!  
 
You are so worthy.  
 
Your family and your dreams are worth it.  
 
Together we can do this, but you must take the first step. ðŸ‘Š

I can't wait to connect with you via text, email, or on social media!

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Copyrights © 2025 held by respective copyright holders, including Adventures 4 #RealLife ~ Echo Alexzander.