One Year Reflection...

Tomorrow marks one year since I began working out with the bodyco team. I don't remember a ton of things that happened last year, but one of the few I do is how much getting back into working out got me through the last 12 months and made me a significantly better person than I was a year and a half ago. In January of last year, having recently moved away from a place I spent the first 30 years of my life, dad getting his terminal diagnosis, I having to leave my job that I loved, and having no friends or support system around me I spun out of control. Not only did I eat terribly, was not active in any way, I was a mental and emotional mess.

I am pretty introverted and am not one to express my feelings with others. I never opened up to many about this, but feel it sets the tone for the past year and the better place I have been able to move to. I happened to have a routine physical in early June of last year and my doc whom I generally adore told me I was not only overweight, but moving toward obesity. I was a complete mess & completely offended. This was the day before I found bodyco. Reading back on blogs over the last year, it was obvious that my doctor was exactly right.  I was a hot mess. As you have read previously, I joined, hated it, but something kept me coming back. Looking back now I didn't hate it, I hated me. I was scared. Scared to fail, scared to look like a fool, scared to succeed even.

I can't thank them, specifically Jody, enough for not giving up on me, for dealing with my bitching, crying, failures, and eventually getting me to where I am now. She cheered for me when I couldn't cheer for myself. The little things like random check ins and positive feedback, to big things like pushing me to do more and register for races with the bodyco team added up to me being the strongest I ever have in my life. Being able to sweat all over their gym (and that's one thing i'm good at) I was able to prove to myself that I could keep up with most of the other members. I give myself a lot of grief about not losing much weight, but I have grown leaps and bounds both physically and mentally by putting in the work at bodyco. Never would I have ever imagined completing five half marathons (and being registered for two more!), two Spartan races (and being registered for three more!) and most especially a Tough Mudder in the last twelve months. The pic below shows exactly that. The ones on the left were taken the week I joined bodyco, and the right were from two weeks ago. I can not only see a physical change in my body, but a genuine smile, something I was missing for a while.

I can't say enough about how awesome and supportive bodyco is. From staff to fellow members, it's an incredibly welcoming environment. I look forward to seeing what the next year brings. I hope to one day be able to give back and help others as they have helped me. Until then, AROO!, HOORAH!, and THANK YOU!