So although I’ve only been posting fitness workout videos on my Imstagram since August 18, 2015, I have pretty religiousy worked out in one way or another since I decided to dedicate the time and energy to losing weight and becoming healthy in 2008. In that time, I’ve really learned a lot about my body and what it’s capable of. Probably the most important thing I’ve learned throughout my journey is that you need to get out of your own way to see the results you want. This has manifested itself in many different ways for me personally, so hopefully my experiences can help others avoid the same setbacks. 

When I first started my weight loss journey, I told my trainer that I would NEVER run. I hated running with the heat of a million suns and would only do it if it was a matter of life and death. Well a friend had a pretty serious health scare and once she found out it was a misdiagnosis, she was so relieved she wanted us all to celebrate by running a half marathon. Who was I to tell her absolutely not when she had just been through so much? I figured one little race (although how I ever could have though of 13.1 miles as one little race eludes me) wouldn’t actually be the death of me. I got a training program and put in all my miles. The first few training runs were GOD AWFUL. I definitely spent more time walking than running and would be trying to come up with reasons to call my husnpband to come pick me up. I dreaded run day and told myself runners were insane. I’ve always been pretty stubborn, however, and I had signed up and more importantly paid for this race somthere was no way I would quit. People always talk about the wall with regards to running marathon or longer distances. It’s the point were your mind begins to question whether you’re body is up to the challenge at hand. I’ve actually hit the wall in not one but two full marathons and can fully say that my early struggles with running were the exact same phenomenon. Running, while clearly a physical endeavor, also involves a very strong mental component. If I had a penny for every person who has ever told me they could never run a half marathon (let alone a full marathon) or heck even a 5k, I would have a considerable number of pennies. Heck I used to be that type of person, but I got out of my own way and found a training program that allowed me to approach it in a very straight forward and quantifiable way. I either logged the miles or I didn’t. And the more miles I logged, the easier it became. As of this blog post, I’ve run 12 half marathons and 2 marathons. Not something I’d ever thought I’d be able to say, but that makes it even better.

The same goes for weight lifting. I’ve always been a relatively strong person, but I’ve only recently discovered that I was underperforming because I thought I had maxed out my PRs. I always lifted more than most women I knew so I figured I was lifting heavy enough. I also didn’t lift too heavy during my intensive race training as I was told carrying too much muscle would be detrimental to my running. Then I had two children between my 29th and 33rd birthdays, which also put a bit of a hold on my lifting. After my son was born, I to.d ,y trainer that I’d like to see just how heavy I could lift. She was more than happy to oblige me in this. She often tells me that I’m one of her only clients that can not only lift so heavy, but even the only one who can even do certain exercises. This is actually something I hear a lot on Instagram that people could never do what I’m doing but I should keep it up. There are a lot of things that I do know that I never would have thought I could do bother with regards to difficult exercises or particularly heavy weights. I will try anything once and if it doesn’t go well, I usually end up trying again and again until I get it. 

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So this week, I decided to attempt the kettle bell swing with the heaviest kettle bell available in the XIT room, 65 pounds. I had to do a set of 20 and fully expected to only be able to do a couple at this weight and then have to move down to the next lowest kettle bell, which was 50#. Once again, I wound up being pleasantly surprised when I completed the full set of 20 albeit as two sets of 10 with a quick break in between. Never be afraid to give a new exercise or higher weight a try… you also might find yourself pleasantly surprised.