"Can't Never Could"

My wonderful Mema has a phrase that she always uses when one of us says we can't do something, "Can't never could."  That simple and true little saying has helped me so many times when I've faced the numerous battles of this journey:

• The very first day on my way to the gym to meet my trainer for the first time, when I could barely walk without losing my breathe and my knee screamed in pain, I thought, "I can't."
• Hovering at the back edges of my first Zumba class, waiting for the music to start I thought, "I can't."
• The first time they ever handed me a jump rope and expected my feet to leave the ground for the first time in years I thought, "I can't."
• Standing behind a 367 pound tire that my trainer expected me to lift up and flip over, I thought "I can't."
• Whenever the scale was not my friend, my first instinct was to say, "I can't."
• As the late night cravings hit and the treats from the kitchen beckoned my resistance said, "I can't."
• When the free weights they handed me went from 8 pounds each to ten to twelve to fifteen and twenty, and they expected me to curl them over my head, my brain screamed, "I can't."
• As the starting fire sounded at the beginning of my first 5K and I saw all the runners strike out ahead of me, I definitely thought, "I can't."

Lucky for me I had Mema's advice that "can't never could" to listen to in the back of my head in each of these instances...that and the shear stubbornness that wasn't going to let anyone (including myself) tell me I couldn't do something, whether that was sticking to my training, resisting the bad food most of the time, flipping a big tire (flipped that sucker 18 times that day), finishing a 5K, or pressing onward when the road got tough.

"Can" and "can't" are powerful words that have the ability to either empower us or hold us back from everything we're capable of already.  Can't never could, but saying "I can," even when you don't believe it, is empowering.