Celebrating 7 years of BUF & 7 lessons about women
This week we celebrated the BUF Girls seventh birthday. That’s seven years of seriously good vibes, working out with an incredible girl squad, and lessons learnt about what makes a gal tick.Today we thought we’d share seven lessons we’ve learned about women after spending seven years of training them exclusively.Here goes…POSITIVITY is a state easily accessed when women spend time with other women. No matter what’s going on, connecting and sharing seems to act like meditation for us, soothing bad moods, boosting mojo, and uplifting us as we share our lives with each other. Leave the “man caves” to the men, because us gals are sharers, bonders and communicators… and nothing makes us happier than finding our own community of inspiring girls to belong to.STRONG and ADAPTABLE are words that always come to mind when thinking of the sisterhood. In our time running BUF, we’ve watched women deal with everything life can throw at them, from health concerns and miscarriages, to divorces and illness, or deaths in the family, to redundancies and big promotions, mental health issues and challenging study paths. Through it all, the girls experiencing these huge life events expressed their feelings in their own ways and then sucked it up, made new plans, in many cases changed their life courses entirely and made the best of every situation. Yep, that’s strength and adaptability alright!Feeling ENERGETIC is the number one goal women come to us with these days. In a fast-paced world where technology rules our every waking hour, most girls show up at our boot camps or online groups exhausted, sleep deprived, living on packaged snack foods and take away dinners, high on energy drinks and caffeine, and either drastically over or under-trained, completely unsure of what to do to fix the situation. This is why we are SO passionate about training women exclusively, because we DO need a different approach to men when it comes to training and nutrition, because women DO often put themselves last and forget that they can’t support others without first supporting their own energy and health. I can’t count the number of times women have come to us wanting to ramp up their training programs and cut down their food intake, but we’ve had to tell them to do just the opposite, taking more time for themselves, alternating workout days with good old fashioned walking and stretching, increasing quality calories and getting more SLEEP. Women’s hormones thrive on a balanced approach that adapts to different stages of their cycles.FIT looks different on different body shapes, and it’s important to remember that this is a great thing! Often the parts of your body you don’t necessarily love are the parts others will find outrageously gorgeous. We tend to look at our own bodies with a critical eye and pick them apart, because they’re so familiar to us and just like a pair of shoes you bought last season, it’s easy to get bored of them and crave something new. Remember that your body is not just an ornament to put on parade, it’s the vessel that allows you to experience life, do incredible things and see amazing places! Focus on being fit enough to say YES to any adventure that comes along, to climb mountains and swim in the sea, take a fun dance class or join your bestie in a boxing session, cycle through Italy or paddle out in the surf. You can’t hate your body into changing, you need to respect what it can do and the incredible life it’s allowed you to live first, then chase change from that place… set fitness and health goals because you love your body and want the best for it, not because you hate it and want to change it just to look better.SEXY is how women feel when they look after their hormones and respect their cycles. Our hormones change week-to-week and it’s important to alter your workouts, nutrition and lifestyle to match, if you want to feel your sexiest. And by sexy, we really just mean on top of the world! We recommend downloading the My Flo hormone balancing app and letting all four phases of your cycle work for you. Also check out BUF founder @libbybabet’s Instagram/Facebook accounts to see the workout vids she’s been making in partnership with U By Kotex to help you out with workout ideas pre, during and post-period.CONFIDENCE is a state of mind. So often women feel they have to be perfect, but they don’t… real and flawed is intriguing and amazing. It’s important to be unapologetically who you are now, and embrace who you are becoming too. Confidence isn’t being perfect, it’s being okay with your imperfect nature and understanding that progress and challenge equal happiness.BUF IS HAPPINESS - our years of working so closely with women have proven to us that there are three core things that contribute to daily happiness: feeling like you belong to something and are loved and supported, being in good health with a fit, robust body, and chasing new challenges that make you feel like your life is progressing. These three things combine to create our BUF pillars, feeling BEAUTIFUL (connected/supported/loved), feeling UNSTOPPABLE (healthy, fit, strong), feeling FEARLESS (challenged, progressing).Join us to celebrate everything it means to be a healthy, happy, vibrant woman as we take the stage as the main act at Lorna Jane’s Active Nation Day in Brisbane on September 24th. Last chance to snap up tix and workout with us LIVE all our Queensland sisters!