In 2009, I made a decision that would change my life. I signed up to do the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk in Philadelphia. 60 miles, over 3 days. The only problem was, I weighed almost 300 pounds at the time. Um….not the brightest idea, right?
But I had a plan – I would walk off the weight. Brilliant, right? Training to walk 60 miles meant I had to walk every weekend for hours and hours. Of COURSE I would lose weight!
Um…no. Not even a pound. Fortunately, I didn’t gain any weight, but I didn’t lose anything either. Despite hours of walking. 272 pounds of failure.
I did do one thing right though – I hired a personal trainer to help me get in shape for the walk. I knew I couldn’t do it alone and I didn’t know where else to turn. So I brought in someone to help me make some changes.
I thought she’d help me drop 50 pounds. But it turns out, unless you hire someone to follow you around and take the fork out of your hand, no amount of personal training expertise will keep you from stuffing your face with junk food if you really want to. And I was pretty self-destructive in those days.
What she did help me lose was even more important than weight: it was my negative perception of myself. By working with her regularly I learned how to see myself differently. How to be an athlete – a runner, as it turned out – in the body I had right then.
I got strong, both physically and mentally. Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing a fat girl, I saw a strong girl. A girl with confidence and hope. Turns out, that was so much more valuable than losing 50 pounds.
When the weekend of the 60-mile walk came around, I was ready. Scared, yes. But I’d done the training. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had a different idea, and there was so much rain that weekend that the had to cancel the first two days. We only walked 20 miles, and I never got a chance to find out if I could have done the full 60. But that didn’t really matter, because I’d done all the training and found something within me that was so valuable.
I was so confident and energized from the experience, the next week I signed up for my first triathlon. And the rest is history.
Since then I’ve realized how important it is to have someone to help you through the things you’re struggling with on your own. Sure, you can learn new skills with hours of reading, and discussing and experimentation. It can take a long time. And sometimes that’s exactly how I learn new things, because it’s fun to do the research (which is why I spend hours on Youtube watching coloring videos and playing around with the techniques on my own).
But when it’s REALLY important to me, I don’t like to mess around. I find someone that’s walked the path before me and I ask them to light the way. I’ve hired business coaches, running coaches, personal trainers, and most recently a weight loss coach to help me quickly shed the weight I gained when I was injured last year (and when peri-menopause hit me like a ton of bricks and the tried-and-true methods I’d always used were no longer working). I’m down 26 pounds in 3 months. Once you get serious, you get results.
I messed around with running for almost 10 years before hiring a professional. Within 4 months I was a completely different person. Committed, confident, strong. Running, cycling, swimming, and doing yoga. All without losing a single pound. And the best part? That’s when the weight started to come off – and it was easy.
You have to ask yourself, how important it is to make running (or whatever your goal is) happen. How badly do you want it? Are you willing to mess around on your own for a few years figuring things out, or do you want to just get busy and take the quickest path to success? Either way is totally fine – but once you decide which way you’re going to go, you can start taking action. It’s staying in the middle ground that’s uncomfortable. Once you pick a direction, everything falls into place.
If you’re in the same place I was 7 years ago, I’d like to offer you the opportunity to experience the same relief I did. To go from struggling with your running practice, body image, confidence, to really rocking it out and running your butt off. It’s never too late to turn the tide and I can help.
I am taking on a few new clients. Women that know absolutely what they want – and it’s the most important thing for them to achieve – but can’t seem to figure out how to get from point A to point B.
If this sounds like you, schedule some time for us to chat and let’s see what we can do to get you from spectator to runner:
And if not, I totally get it! I might not be the coach for you. Or you might not really want a coach. Or you might think that hiring a coach is admitting defeat. It’s all good.
But…if you’re thinking it’s too much money, you don’t have time, or you’re beyond help, we really do need to talk. Because you might be surprised!
