The Champion In Me

So, there is this song by 3 Doors Down that I love - The Champion In Me. The lyrics are inspiring and motivating and every time I hear it (and I hear it a lot) - it makes me want to work harder, become better, and to kick a little ass along the way!!! I am fit. I am strong - but I haven't always been. It was just 3 short years ago that I found myself fat again! After swearing up and down and "on a stack of bibles" that I would never get fat again - there I was - 224 pounds. How the hell did this happen?? Looking back into that time of my life, its a wonder that I wasn't fatter! I worked 10 hours a day behind a desk at a job that was stressful and no longer challenging. I'd come home day after day and plop down on the couch and feed my face with unhealthy foods and promise myself that I would start my diet again on Monday!

That Monday finally came AFTER I walked away from that disappointing $75K a year job and decided that things were going to change.

REWIND 25 YEARS or so - I was the girl who always "had such a pretty face". Have any of you ever heard that before? I used to take that as a compliment but now when I hear someone say that about someone it just pisses me off! So, somewhere around
6th Grade I became aware of the fact that I was bigger than most of the girls in my grade. In 7th Grade I just didn't give a shit - kind of adopted the "I just don't care what other people think" attitude. But, my 8th Grade year brought me face to face with a fat teenage girl's worst nightmare - a BEAUTY PAGEANT! My mother met a neighbor whose daughters were involved in pagents. Of course, these girls deserved to be in pageants - tall, blonde, thin - exactly where they should have been. Why my mother ever thought that she should put ME in the pageant is still beyond my comprehension. The weight limit for the pagent was 120 pounds ( I will remember this until my dying day!) - so at 13 years old and 130+ pounds I had to get my butt in gear. So, I joined the volleyball team in hopes of getting some exercise and although I was not very good at the game I managed to get moving at least. I remember stepping on the scale every single day - I hit 120 lbs - and up until the day of the pageant I had to weigh in to be sure that I didn't surpass the weight limit. I think it was during this experience that I convinced myself that THINNER was ALWAYS BETTER - if I was skinny, I was worthy.

OK, Fast Forward - January 2007. Just quit the job, depressed as hell, fatter than ever, and absolutely desperate for a change! Grabbed the flyer out of the stack of mail that sat on the counter for the "COMING SOON" Women only health club and went out the door on a mission to join. Don't get me wrong, I was no stranger to health clubs or physical fitness! I had worked out sporadically almost all my life (when I was being "good"). With nothing to use as an excuse this time I joined the gym.
THIS IS WHERE THE REAL JOURNEY BEGAN!!

To make a long story short - I started taking the indoor cycling class at Pure Fitness and before long was seeing my body change. By March I had lost some weight and had gotten pretty good on the bike. By April - the fire was lit! I was onto something here - I hadn't felt that good in a long long time. This is it!!! Remember hearing from all those wise people in your life - that if YOU DO WHAT YOU LOVE THEN YOU WILL NEVER WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE - well, honey, they were right!!

By May 2007 I was certified to teach Group Exercise! In a matter of months I was teaching classes, meeting lots of great women (and men since I was now teaching at a co-ed gym too) and feeling reborn! I know, kind of dramatic to say it that way, but it's true!!

So, today, May 4, 2010 - after thinking about it for a while and talking myself out of it, then back into it - I decide to start this blog. I am working toward my NASM Personal Training Certification, I have hundreds of people each week attending my fitness classes, and I have created a career out of something I love. BUT - I work for it every day. I know what that CHAMPION looks like and I work toward her every day - to be better every day. What does your champion look like?? Read the lyrics to the song - and think about it. Talk to you soon, K