Made Of Steel?

Next week the new Transformation team at my work will be chosen and we, the guinea pigs of the first program, are probably as excited to find out who they are as the candidates themselves.  The Transformation program and its two brilliant trainers changed my life and I am so happy for the new members because they have no idea the blessings that are about to be in store for them.   The program brought me to the awesome place I am now, it set me on my path, its leaders believed in me before I believed in myself, it inspired this blog, it saved my life, and it brought me friendships of the folks I now regard as family.  We, the inaugural class, now get to act as mentors to the new group, a role that I am really looking forward to.

My "family" and I met up in the gym as usual for our workout today, and in a way, we are as new as the folks who haven't been chosen for the program.  We are new to being on our own to work ourselves out and to be accountable for producing the results.  We've had to figure out our own workouts and also learn how to take ourselves to the next level once those workouts are no longer challenging.   Our trainers are still there as resources and friends, but now that our turn in the program is complete, we have to take the knowledge we gained and add some inner gumption to push ourselves past the comfort zones that become our default setting. We all have confidence in doing the exercises we know best, but what we're learning is how to motivate ourselves in the way a trainer can; to squeeze out that last rep or interval that we didn't think we had in us. 

I'd been kind of frustrated lately because while everyone else was hurting and sore, I didn't have that same soreness. "I'm sore." Millie said last week.  "I'm not." I'd replied. "You must be made of steel," she countered. I have definitely become strong, but my lack of soreness wasn't due to that;  I'd gotten in good workouts, but I'd been doing the same weights and reps and obviously it was time to be my own trainer and make myself do more.

Today I'm happy to say that not only am I going to be sore tomorrow, I could barely lift my sopping wet shirt over my head in the locker room after our workout. Completing a challenging workout with a trainer makes you feel awesome.  Creating and completing a challenging workout on your own though, well that just feels amazing!