What an awesome and inspiring post!
I feel absolutely blessed to be able to assiciate with you. Have I mentioned that lately?
Please ... state your age for those who think that, in their late 30's, being strained to tie their shoes is normal aging.
I had a similar thought on Tuesday when going to bed, feeling like all was right with the world, "Life is what you make it." Meaning, if yours isn't what you want, take action and change it to what you want.
On a funny note, I was in a meeting at a public relations agency earlier in the year and saw a campaign they had created with labels attached to bags of chips and other snacks that said, "The answer is NOT in here." LOL
Wow, Meg! You put into words something I've been feeling lately myself.
Quote:
Yeah, I think for me the answers are in the gym. It's more than just exercise, building muscle, and burning calories ... the gym is what made me get back in touch with my body. I spent years ignoring and denying my body, hoping no one noticed it and certainly not taking care of it. When I joined a gym, I was forced to pay attention to my body - how it looked, felt, and moved. I guess I had to wake up and became aware of my body.
At the gym especially, I am starting to FINALLY, get a sense of my body! And I've been wondering why it took 40 years for that to happen. I know that some of the answer lies in the fact that I had asthma growing up. Physical exertion was associated with asthma attacks! I couldn't breathe well! Perhaps it's no wonder I started down that path.
For the first time in my life, I am starting to see how good it can feel to push myself physically -- and it's a revelation. I pushed and challenged my mind, but ignored my body. Only now I realize I can do both!
It's like I've awakened a part of myself -- she's been sleeping forever and wants to get out and see the world.
So, Meg, I guess if you're , then maybe I'm getting there too!
I come from a background where you were either smart or sporty. Good girls were subdued, quiet. I cannot sit still for very long and my earliest memories are of my mother telling me to sit still and be quiet.
God bless my husband who spanned my ribs with his hands one day (after watching me walk down the street in yoga pants) and said "I always knew there was a sport under there somewhere and she's so sexy!"
Meg: Thanks so much for putting into words what so many of us are experiencing. For a very long time I was just going through the motions in my life. It wasn't until I was diagnosised with a hypothyroid that I knew I something in my life had to change.
The something I chose was to get "fit". What the scaled showed was secondary. I wanted to be able to do specific things that are associated with people who are "fit."
Asking for help is the most difficult thing for me to do. This was the first hurdle I had to overcome. Just approaching the front desk to ask for assistance with the equipment just about made me ill. But I did it.
The next hurdle was entering the free weight area. I felt like a little kid wanting to enter the "sandbox" in a new neighborhood. I had watched many of the "regulars" there each day and wondered if I was "worthy" enough to actually enter. I knew that free weights were often better than the machines but had to find the courage just to walk over there an claim a bench for myself.
The next hurdle was running on the treadmill. I was still pretty heavy when I began running and it was the most horrific feeling at first. I had to get over that too.
I did overcome these hangups at the gym. I found that not only do I enjoy the endorphine rush of a great high intensity interval workout and the empowering thrill of completing a set of heavy squats I need to do this. At the end of the workout my mind is clear and and I feel so very centered within myself. I know more of who I am now.
This past summer was awesome. I have just had so much fun as a result of the efforts I put into the gym beginning last fall. I truly feel more youthful now than I did ten years ago. And that, is what it is all about for me.
Yes, Meg, thanks for sharing that. I'm beginning to realize that I too need to find my answers in the gym as well, and am working towards getting back to that point...
I don't think you're crazy - I've had one of those "voices in my ear" experiences myself - happened ages ago in college, I don't even remember what it was, but at the time it was the oddest thing!
Cindy
It's funny that Lydia and Heather wrote about 'awakening' and 'going through the motions' because I've always said that I sleepwalked through the 20 years prior to losing weight. Definitely asleep, definitely just going through the motions. Now I feel like every nerve ending is *vibrating*.
Wherever did we get the notion that smart girls didn't do sports or go to the gym? I guess we comforted ourselves with the notion that we were 'above it all' with our lofty intellectual pursuits but secretly I was jealous.
Hey Lydia, I'm hypo too!
Fran, we've got to make T-shirts with 'the answer is here' on the front with a gym photo and 'the answer is NOT here' on the back with a photo of cookies or chips or whatever!
It seems like there's a group of us for whom the gym is so much more than ... the gym. It's a place of self-discovery and introspection - and if you told that to someone who doesn't belong to a gym, they'd think we're just plain . It's such a cliche, but getting fit and strong is empowering (I just can't think of a better word for it) and it colors every aspect of our lives.
Lydia, I so identified with the difficulty of all the steps you took, from the treadmill to the free weight room. For me, even walking in the door at 257 pounds may have been the hardest thing I've done in my life. Looking back, though, aren't these the best things we've ever done? Change is hard and uncomfortable, for sure, but the payoff is priceless.
I don't know if the differences between us as little girls and our world today is a place in time (smart vs sporty), confidence gained with our ages, or a combination. I know that for me, besides having moved up a couple of socioeconomic levels from where I was raised, there is just more opportunity now, for girls (and boys). Growing up, there was softball for girls and baseball/football for boys. Now, for girls, pick and choose from gymnastics, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, softball/baseball, swimming, field hockey, etc. Did Title 9 do all this? The women's movement? Moving from Georgia to Maryland?? (LOL!) Seriously, the world is a different place 40 years later. Sports when I was little meant being hot, sweaty, dirty and gross. And very few choices. I liked softball, but there was nowhere to take those skills beyond the Babe Ruth community league. Now, there's rec, travel, and regional/state leagues. Definitely a different world!
Meg, I'm all over that shirt. Cafe Press anyone? If we make it, they will sell it!
Fran, when I was little, there was Drum & Bugle Corps for girls - that's about it. In school for gym, we (really) played dodgeball, a little softball, and field hockey. If you were in the "select" group you got to play tennis. Me, I have poor eye/hand coordination - no tennis, in fact no "hit something" games at all.
Oh yes, Pat! Thank goodness for marching band and flag corps - that was the most fit period of my life, marching miles long Mardi Gras parades, WDW parades and Peach Bowl parades. Something the non-sporties could do to be active. lol
'The Answers Are Here'
Nice post!
, then maybe I'm getting there too!
but secretly I was jealous. 
