72 Hours to Deployment: When Everything Changes, You Still Have a Choice 

Military life has a way of changing the plan when you least expect it. Deployments, PCS moves, unpredictable schedules, and seasons of doing it all on your own can make putting yourself first feel nearly impossible. But I’ve learned that taking care of yourself during the hardest parts of this lifestyle isn’t selfish, it’s often what allows you to keep showing up for the people who need you most.

And even when so much feels outside of your control, you still get to choose how you care for yourself, who you want to be, and how you show up each day.

A 72 Hour Curveball

Earlier this year, my husband came home from work on a Monday night and told me something that I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams. War had broken out in the Middle East, and he was deploying in 72 hours.

My husband is an active-duty Marine. We had recently completed an international move to Japan, which typically means you stay put as a family.

That evening, everything changed. He would be deploying to the Middle East with an unknown return date, and I would be doing it all solo in a foreign place. I felt blindsided; thrown a massive curveball. The entire situation was like a bad dream.

Tears, despair watching the news, and too many unknowns. But I didn’t want our girls to suffer any more than needed since they were already missing their dad so much. I knew that meant they needed the best of me. So, we carried on the best we could. And after the initial shock and wave of all the emotions wore off, I made a decision. I wasn’t going to let a hard season become an excuse to abandon the promises I’d made to myself. Because difficult circumstances don’t remove your ability to choose. I still got to decide who I was going to be and how I would show up during this deployment.

A Promise to Myself

Each morning, I promised to show up for myself, and I got to the gym regardless of how I was feeling that day. This gave me a sense of control and kept the hardship from taking even more away from me, especially something as important as my health. On my hardest days, my workout became the turning point of my day. It gave me the clarity, energy, and perspective I needed to keep showing up for my girls.

And while you may not be going through a deployment, maybe you’re navigating a PCS, a divorce, a diagnosis, or you’re simply spread incredibly thin. Who you become during the hard seasons is usually who you stay when life gets easier.

I’ve learned that resilience isn’t built when life is easy. It’s built in the ordinary decisions we continue making when life feels anything but.

Instead of abandoning your health and fitness goals during this time, you can:

1. Feel it. Do not pretend you are okay when you are not.

• Toxic positivity tells you to be happy and pretend the other feelings are not there. Real joy says you can hold both emotions.

2. Scale down your expectations; maintain the commitment.

• Maybe your workouts drop from five days a week to three, or the duration from an hour to 30 minutes.

3. Take it one day at a time.

• Ask yourself daily: Who do I want to be today? Not when this is all over, but today.

You could give up, and honestly, no one would blame you. Life gives us plenty of reasons to put ourselves on hold, and our culture is quick to tell us those reasons are enough. But I am on the other end now and let me tell you this: there is no better feeling than knowing you didn’t abandon yourself when life got hard.

I wasn’t taking care of myself because life was easy. I was taking care of myself because life was hard.

If your health only matters when life is easy, you’ll spend your whole life starting over. But if you learn how to care for yourself through the hard seasons, you’ll build something far greater than a healthier body. You’ll build resilience. You’ll build confidence. You’ll become someone who keeps promises to yourself, regardless of what’s happening around you.

And I promise you, when this chapter is behind you, you’ll come out knowing what you’re capable of. The hardship you’re facing doesn’t have to become your entire identity. It can become the very thing that reminds you how strong you really are.

Meet Samantha

Samantha Costello is a military spouse and founder of CoreFit Coaching, where she provides private coaching for high-performing women focused on weight loss, nutrition, and lifestyle refinement. As a military spouse herself, she cares deeply about supporting military spouses in building resilient, fulfilling lives despite the uncertainty that often comes with this lifestyle. She believes that when military spouses are at their best physically and mentally, they’re better equipped to do their best for their families, communities, and any endeavor they wish to pursue.

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