Veeve and I Both Got the Pink Memo!

I’m a putz, I know. I haven’t blogged in over a week. Tomorrow, I’ll blog about being a putz. But today, my mind is on other things. 🙂

So last night was a very inspiring night.

Nate and Veeve of FKS Fitness hosted a Watch Party for a client who was featured on “Extreme Makeover”. If anyone truly deserved success, it was Chantell. She’s lost 159 pounds and literally discovered a whole new person along the way.

After the show, we Skyped with her and had a chance to offer our congratulations. It was obvious she is truly a beautiful person inside and out.

During one of the commercial breaks, Veeve asked me to share my testimony with the group, which on the heels of the show, inspired today’s post.

I teared up last night when I talked about how different I am today. There were some things I expected to achieve: losing weight, finding muscle, feeling better. Having more stamina. Less muscle pain. More energy. Sleeping better.

What I really never expected was how the confidence in myself that I built through my journey to fitness would bleed into other areas of my life.

In December of 2011, several months before my 50th birthday, I began to think about where I was at physically and where I wanted to be.  I wasn’t happy with myself,  and I worried about remaining healthy as I aged. My philosophy was that I could either spend money on a personal trainer and enjoy the benefits of looking and feeling fabulous, or I could wait and spend money on medical treatments.

I pictured how I would feel lying in a hospital bed waiting for a cath or heart surgery. Hmmm. This sounded, by far, like the lesser of two evils. I knew, at this time in my life, I had a choice.

That choice led me to FKS, where Veeve tailored a program for my goals and needs.  I kept telling myself that the first two weeks of training would be the hardest. I just needed to keep showing up. In mid-January, I departed for Florida, carrying with me a list of workouts to do while I was gone, courtesy of my trainer. I worked out consistently in Florida, ate my normal diet, enjoyed cocktails, and was rewarded with a loss of 2 pounds when I got home 6 weeks later.

And I’m still doing it. I told Veeve I think she’s stuck with me. 😉

Since then, I’ve lost 30 pounds through a lifestyle change. I’m not done yet. I still have 20 to go. But I know now I can do it. It’s just a matter of time.

Veeve pushed me farther than I would have ever pushed myself. We do all kinds of activities, from lifting to walking to jumping to Pilates to stretching. Indoors, outdoors, every day I do something different.

I’m not going to kid you: it was hard. Some days it still is.  There have been days I know if Veeve wasn’t there waiting on me, I wouldn’t have gotten up off the couch. Once in a while I still have those days.  I sweated a lot. (I still do!) I had sore muscles, but sore in a good way. (You see, exercising done properly shouldn’t cause pain). Well, except for feeling the muscle burn. HA

I learned how important, and what a difference breathing makes. I discovered “the zone” that I’ve only heard about (not that I get to spend much time there, mind you…we’re too busy mixin’ it up so I keep improving!)

Most of all, I discovered how much potential I really had inside me. I developed ‘body confidence’…because I realized my body was an incredible machine capable of great things.

I remember my “AHA” moment, just like yesterday. I was on a trip to Florida last November, out for my morning workout. In the beginning, to run 30 seconds made my lungs feel like they were going to explode. During a 30-minute interval training workout, I ran for 7 minutes straight. I couldn’t believe it. I felt powerful! And exhilarated. YES! This is living!

I believe God has an amazingly perfect system in place. Those who work hard and do the right things reap the most rewards.

I believed it before, but now I KNOW I can do anything I put my mind to. Suddenly, the rest of my life began to fall into place, just as it should be.

Fitness isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition; it’s a process. Any activity, done in proper form that gets your heart rate up is good for you. Even if your budget can’t afford working out consistently with a trainer, a basic package will help you learn what to do and how to do it…safely. I’ve learned how incredibly important form is, not only preventing injury but helping you target the correct muscle. The slightest shift in movement can make the biggest difference.

And I also learned that fitness is not something you do, check off your ‘to do’ list, and then you’re done with. Fitness, like life, is a journey.

It’s taught me patience. And persistence. And fearlessness. And an appreciation for my Powerful Self. 🙂

Class of 2013

Today’s regularly scheduled “Funny Friday” post has been postponed until tomorrow. I just got back from my Leadership Retreat, and my head is buzzing with other stuff. So come back tomorrow for regularly scheduled programming!

The last couple of days, the Missouri Association of Realtors’ Leadership Academy Class of 2013 spent “retreating” at the Stoney Creek Inn in Columbia. This was our 4th retreat, so we’ve gotten to know one another pretty well by now.

We’ve become a family.

As we’ve gotten to know and be more comfortable with one another, each retreat has been more enriching…and more profound.

The Leadership Academy teaches us not only how to be better at what we do, but to be better leaders in our communities, in our workplace, on our local boards, and at the state level if that’s what we choose to do. Each retreat is filled with incredibly dynamic speakers on a variety of subjects, group activities, team building exercises, and fun…all in interesting places around the state that I might not have visited in the first place.

These are all things that I expected to learn. I expected to have a blast. I expected to enjoy my classmates, and to enjoy the whole process.  I did not expect it to be life changing.

Here’s a few of the things I pondered on the way home today:

1. Leaders are made, not born. Some people may have natural leadership skills, but the best leaders are constantly learning and trying to become even better at what they do.

2. If you think you know all there is about leadership, you probably don’t.

3. Leadership is about listening: keeping your mind open, and hearing what others are saying. I assumed I would learn something from the people around me…I just didn’t realize how much. And from how many. And how meaningful it would be. I realized that if you always have to be right or to “win”, you’re missing an opportunity to learn from those around you.

4. When you have a group of people working together, what everyone has to say is important, and has merit. Everyone contributes to the whole. While the final product won’t have everything you wanted, it will have some of what you wanted. Because great leaders know that when we work toward compromise and helping others win – we all win.

5. And, sometimes the best course of action is to simply change course altogether.

6. Leadership has costs. Whether it’s financial, time away from your family, stress, fewer friendships, less social time…there are costs involved. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” [Thanks to my dad for patiently paying for me to get through college on the 12-Year-Plan and only to remember 3 things…and that’s one of them.]

7. Everyone has something unique to bring to the table: a different style, personality, attitude, sense of humor, whatever. But that’s what makes you authentically you, and makes you effective. And genuine. And believable.

It’s an amazing process to take 12 diverse, opinionated people with various backgrounds, experiences, personalities, and ages and somehow transform them into a unified whole.

I like to think of it in terms of each of us being a piece of a pie: each slice has a slightly different appearance, and the filling components vary, but each is full of flavor and contributes equally to the whole.

So I’m just sayin’…if we were a pie, I think we’re a hot, wonderfully delicious, all-American – baseball and everything – Apple Pie. Only with nuts. 😀