Get In The Game | Calia By Carrie Underwood

What’s the big deal with sports and fitness? An inanimate ball is tossed back and forth until one player scores. A ball is hit, which you proceed to run around a diamond field full of square, hard pillows. It really seems barbaric if you think about it. Furthermore, don’t realize that sports mold you into a more proactive and well-rounded version of yourself.  Whether you only participated in sports as a child or further trained to be a D1 athlete, sports teach us a lot about ourselves.

To back my facts up, I wanted to give you a little bit of background information on my fitness life. Ever since I was little, I wanted to try every sport in the book. With the exception of football and hockey, I’ve just about done it all. In high school, I competitively swam, played tennis, and cheered. In addition, I was on the cheerleading team in college. Over my 23 years of life, I’ve gathered up a bunch reasons as to why I’m so thankful for sports and fitness.

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Before I get in to all that, this idea was all brought up by a specific fitness brand. I’m not going to lie, I thought it was a bit odd that this particular person was starting a fitness brand. When I was given a pair of their leggings for Christmas, I was hooked. Not only are they comfy and stylish, but the message behind her brand is what I loved the most. Most brands just want you to feel like a rejuvenated and healthier version of yourself. This lady in particular wants to celebrate ” the invaluable lessons sports teach us and how sports empower young women to become strong women.” This lady is non-other than Carrie Underwood.

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After I read the whole backstory on Carrie Underwood’s brand, Calia, I got to thinking. Once college was done, I didn’t really know what to do with my life. Now that I didn’t have an extracurricular activity taking up most of my time, I felt kinda lost. Who would have thought that there would be anything to retain from them, once they were done. Boy I was wrong! No wonder employers like to see student-athlete activities on resumes. Sports do immense things for your mind, body, and character and I have learned 5 invaluable lessons that I will always be thankful for.

 1) Patience

Skills and experiences don’t come to you overnight. You have to work for them. Depending on the sport, you have to master your skills and then implement them into your team morale. At times this can become a mind game, but you have to know how to push through this. This has by far the biggest thing I have learned with sports and I still have a hard time with it… (lols). The more time you put into perfecting your skills, the more patience is earned. So put in the work!

2) Focus

When you are a student-athlete or involved in a sports team, you have a life outside of it. It may not seem like it, but you do. By taking yourself out of the one life and into the other is a prime example of focus. If other things are going on in your regular life, you can’t bring that over into your practice, game, or rehearsal. Another example, is that focus as a one track mind. Say you want to get a specific skill in a month. As I said before, it takes time and patience. It also takes undivided attention and focus to really critique yourself and adapt to those changes.

3) Time Management

When you are a student-athlete it’s like working two jobs, while going to school. As a cheerleader, we were expected to attend all other home games in addition to our own practices. At the same time, we were still full-time students. Maintaining a balance, while keeping up with grades is the art of mastering time management. Being on a sports team, is the perfect activity to perfect your time managing skills.

4) Discipline

This come into play via the coaches. When you are on a sports team, you are pushed to your breaking point. It takes discipline to not give up.  In addition, it takes even more discipline to realize this and to push harder. Fight back at what your mind is telling you. Your body will tell you when it’s too much, and this all comes from being disciplined. As another example, discipline comes into effect through representation. You are essentially the liaison of your school or team. This ties into the next lesson.

5) Representation

Due to your duty as an athlete, you are a representative or a model of your team/school. You never want to receive bad comments, because it doesn’t just effect you. You have a big corporation on your hands. You are the liaison between your fans and your organization. Especially as a cheerleader, you are the connection of communication between the fans and your school. You are always on constant watch with the athletic department. As a result, you obtain experience with being in a professional atmosphere, while doing what you love.

Now I realize some of you are rolling your eyes about all this sports talk. I get it, sports may not be your thing. If you were to learn those 5 invaluable lessons that I did, would it change your mind? Today, people keep talking about fitness as a healthy habit. If you look good, you feel good, and working out does just that. All very true, but look at it in a new perspective.

By going to the gym, working out, or picking up a game of kickball, you are practicing a sport. Make it fun for yourself, so you too can practice these personal skills. By building muscle, you are gaining patience and focus. By taking time out of your busy schedule to work out, you are practicing your time management skills and challenging your discipline. Finally, if you do go out and do this, you are representing yourself and the life that you want. It’s all about shining the light on a new perspective.

If all of that went in one ear and out the other, I want to at least introduce you to a line of workout clothes. The idea behind this brand is to help transition you from work out to life. Carrie Underwood wanted to help women feel strong in all elements of their life, and a lot of people feel very confident in work out clothes. As a result, she kicked butt with her line of clothing! These are now my new favorite leggings of all-time. Not only do they fit amazingly, but they are high-waisted. I don’t know about you, but I love high-waisted everything. They just seems to hold everything better… Plus, could they be any cuter and on trend with the mesh paneling?

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Due to the popularity of the mesh trend, I wanted to incorporate more of it! This mesh top from Urban Outfitters is perfect for those of you who don’t like to wear sports bras alone (aka me). It provides you with just the right amount of coverage, while still remaining cool and on trend. I have it in orange as well, and I have a feeling I’m going to be wearing them non-stop this summer. I also picked out my top 5 favorite sports bras from Calia, incase you wanted to check them out! All you have to do is click the picture, and it will take you directly to the piece.

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Finally, I linked my favorite tops and jackets from Calia. I can’t get over how cute the ombre, sweatshirt is, and they also have it in white/blue. Although, there are very limited amounts and sizes. With any of her pieces though, you will feel killer and ready to take on your day. That includes including a good work out! I hope that this post helped you in some way and you are working to better yourself. Whether you need more time management practice, a place to charge your focus battery, or just a good sweat, I hope you challenge yourself to get in the game.

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Leggings (similar) || Mesh Top (white) (orange) || Crop Top (white) (striped) || Jacket (print) || Shoes (similar) || Shades || Lipstick in Fig || Lipstick Topper in Boom-Meringue

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