Do it. Get Hooked.

I've been enjoying playing trainer for the past few days and got an unexpected compliment from my friend Mary who said that my workout on Thursday (running stairs, pull ups, burpees, wall-sits, weights, rowing machine, treadmill, flying squirrels, and planks just to hit the highlights) was just as tough as Jeff and Marisa's.  In fact Frank has started calling me Marisa Junior.  I've taken leadership positions in various aspects of my life, but never in a million years would I ever have thought I'd find myself leading workouts.   Little over a year ago, I couldn't even contemplate how I would have the stamina to make it through a workout, much less find the pleasure of designing one and leading people through it.

Little over a year ago, I avoided anything physical.  Physical exercise, or even the physical things you have to do just to live your life equaled pain and exhaustion to me which also equaled avoid at all cost.   Never, ever did I think that I would find the joy and elation that having strong muscles and endurance would give to me, or the reward in pushing myself as hard as I can go. 

These days I can tell you that there is no better feeling than to feel myself run faster and faster on the treadmill, or to look out across the gym as we all do a workout I created and to find satisfaction in the red faces and sweaty shirts of my friends.  It's addictive and heady to look back after a year and find myself transformed from a person who actively sought the easy way out into a person who shows up at the gym begging to get her butt kicked.

I recently ran into a friend who has been wanting to start her own journey and who has been so supportive to me in mine. On her face I saw the same want and desire to change her situation that I had a year ago and it got me excited for her and the amazing journey I see her starting very soon.  To her and to anyone who wants it bad but may not feel like it is possible I say: do it.  Do it, it is so worth it.  Even in the workout that I created, I was the slowest one up and down the stairs, but five other people (my dear friends who have fought this battle at my side) kept running extra laps up and down until I finished mine so that I wasn't alone. Do it.  People will be there for you.  I will be there for you each step of the way.

Even if you think it's impossible, just start and see what happens.  It will be hard and frustrating at first, there are aches and pains.  There are tears of frustration. There are times when you feel like your body is rebelling against you.  But one day it gets easier. Then it gets better.  And before you know it, you find yourself running on the treadmill and grinning like an idiot because you're proud of yourself.  That's when you really get hooked.