” Positive habits make the good days better and the bad days bearable. “
Who is Nicole? Tell us about yourself…
Well! What I can say about myself? In my current career, I am a District Manager for a retail company where I oversee and lead 22 locations in the South Florida area. I’ve worked in the retail world for 11 years now & even though retail can definitely feel inconsistent & crazy at times, I’m so grateful for all the things being in the field has brought me!
Outside of my retail career, I am married to my wonderful husband of almost 4 years now (together for 11!), and we have 2 wonderful fur babies!
Over the last 5 years or so, I’ve fallen in love with the health & fitness world. Which I never thought would be me! I’m not going to lie, I was that girl who always said that I was not one to ever work out because it just wasn’t “my thing” and my body is just not capable of doing those things! But after I had gotten engaged & wanted to “look good” for my wedding, my best friend was able to convince me to go to an OrangeTheory class with her, and I haven’t looked back since!
Tell us about your fitness journey and how you got into it??
Like I had mentioned above, the main reason why I started my fitness journey was because I wanted to “look good” for our wedding. My best friend had been going to OrangeTheory for about a month or two and she somehow convinced me to try a free class with her.
After that first class, I died. I hadn’t worked out or had done much physical type of activity in probably 6 years or so? But even though I felt like I was going to throw up, I loved it lol. I signed up for a membership that day, and I never looked back. I was addicted to the way my body felt & how confident it made me feel.
In the beginning, it was definitely a struggle to find the motivation to stay consistent week after week, especially when it would be a few days of not going or coming back from a vacation. There were times where I wouldn’t go for an entire month. The more I made excuses to not go, the more I would try to justify those excuses.
At this time, I was also drinking alcohol (& smoking) seven days out of the week & still putting whatever in my body food-wise with no thought. The results that I was seeing were so inconsistent, which also made it feel discouraged to keep going. In my mind, working out was supposed to automatically make & feel good without any other sacrifices.
Clearly, I was wrong lol. So that went on for probably the first 2-3 years of my fitness journey. In that time, I eventually left OrangeTheory & started to do home workouts – HUGE money & time saver! But still had the same habits around drinking, smoking, eating all the things.
My best friend continued to inspire me with eating healthier, which helped me start to make better food choices and cut my drinking to about 4-5 times a week (felt like a win to me lol!). Small results started to come.
Then in late 2018, after 9 years of working my butt off in retail, I finally got promoted to a District Manager! Long story short, at the beginning of 2019, our company was going through a rough time, and my position ended up getting eliminated.
I was fortunate enough to still be able to stay with the company & drop back down as a Store Manager, even though it felt devastating for me. Nine years of all that hard work felt insignificant at the time.
I didn’t cope well with it. For the next month – month & a half, I spiraled. I was drinking ALL the time, smoking. I even took pills to help numb the way I was feeling so I could pass out & forget. I felt like I was on edge all the time and was lashing out at everyone.
Then one night, I drank all I could drink & took some pills so I could pass out for the night. The next morning, I woke up feeling like straight crap. I could not stop throwing up. It wasn’t a feeling that I’ve felt before. I started googling everything and thought I may have permanently damaged something in my body (thanks Google!).
I remember after that day, I told myself that I needed to stop feeling bad for myself and that this pity party had to stop. I needed something that I COULD CONTROL to get back ahold of my life.
So, I turned to my fitness. I started to put all of my focus & energy in working on myself & feeling good again. And since that day, I’ve been more consistent than ever – with my workouts, with my eating, with my positive HABITS!
Since then, I’ve been able to get promoted again into a District Manager position, happier than ever, more confident than ever, and able to show up more often than not! There’s definitely still some work I’ve got to do, but I’m here for it!
What has been the most rewarding experience during this journey?
Finding myself. Being able to remember who I am and not drowning myself in alcohol to feel like I could be confident or to feel like people would like me or enjoy me. Focusing on my health & fitness has brought me confidence and happiness. My intention was never to give up alcohol altogether but it’s allowed me to make better decisions, create a better balance with it, and truly enjoy it for what it is instead of using it to mask my insecurities.
And now that I’ve been able to find that confidence in myself, it’s allowed me to help others. Being able to show up every single day has made me a stronger leader for my teams and a stronger leader in my life.
I’ve been able to inspire others to start focusing on their health & fitness and have helped others create better habits to be able to stay consistent on their own journey.
What has been the most difficult experience?
Forcing myself to take a look back at myself and all the things that I am not so proud of and truly owning up it. My husband took a lot of crap because of all the insecurities I’ve had and he definitely got the worst of it.
I was not the best person.
How do you motivate yourself on those days that you need a little push?
I remember my WHY. I think about the day I decided to take back control of my life and what health & fitness has done for me.
I’ve created a habit of saying YES on the hardest days & knowing my why. And the more I said yes on the hard days, the easier it became.
What is one advice you can give to someone who wants to start to incorporate fitness into their everyday routine?
STAY CONSISTENT. The only way to stay motivated is to stay consistent, no matter what the obstacle. When you can make it a habit to stay consistent on the hardest days, every other day feels easy. Positive habits make the good days better and the bad days bearable.
You owe it to yourself to show up each and every day.
Where do you hope to be with your fitness goals in the next 5 years?
I hope to be at the top of my game when it comes to my health & fitness in 5 years! I want to be able to maintain consistent results and still enjoy all the things, like my desserts and my alcohol! I’m definitely feeling great where I’m at right now, but there’s always room for improvement and more consistency!
I’m also planning on creating my own workout programs for those who aren’t quite sure where to start. I’m going to be starting with mostly body weight, no equipment workout programs and will slowly build into creating programs with equipment.
What role do you have in society and/or how do you wish to contribute?
My goal is to inspire others to either start on their fitness journey or to keep going! I hope to one day create a business that teaches & educates individuals on how to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle through effortless, routine habits.
I also plan on donating between 10-20% of my overall income from this business to the American Cancer Society.
Cancer has recently shown up in my life throughout the last few years in those close to me. I am fortunate enough that the ones closest to me have made it through, but I also know others that have had close friends & family that have lost their battles to cancer. I hope that any contributions I’m able to make can make a difference in someone else’s life who’s fighting cancer.
Explain a time where you’ve used your talents to inspire the community and how do you hope to keep doing so?
Most recently, I decided to create free challenge groups to help motivate others to start working on their health & fitness! They’re 30-day challenges made up of 5-15 minutes worth of exercise/physical activity.
Within our current challenge group, I’ve been able to create a community of those with the same goal and create accountability & motivation for them to keep going!
Being a District Manager & leading my 22 teams from afar, it’s definitely something I’m very familiar with.
I hope to continue to offer these free challenge groups either every month or every other and offer those who want more of a challenge, an opportunity to purchase my workout programs.
Lastly, what is the best piece of advice you can give in life?
Consistency in your daily habits is key to achieving any of your goals in life! Habits create motivation!
Stay active and GET FIT with Nicole :
IG : @nhurley.0311 and @xfit_nicx
FB : Nicole Hurley
To Nicole: What an inspiring and motivating journey you’ve had! Knowing you all these years and seeing how much you’ve grown and where you are now is AMAZING. Thank you for being brave enough to share how you overcame some obstacles. You’re a true testament to how determination, self-discipline and a positive mindset can certainltly turn around a bad situation. I’m proud of how far you’ve come along and excited to join in on this fitness journey with you. Wishing you all the best with all your dreams! Get it, girl!
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