Lessons Learned: Living Like Winnie

When I became a trainer, I had great aspirations of writing life changing inspiring blog posts that would help people on their own road to weight loss. Yeah that didn't happen.  I've been so busy being a paid bully professional motivator, that I quit writing.  I'm hoping to pick it back up soon, but I've realized that a lot of people are fighting the same battles I fought, and having to learn the same hard lessons I've had to learn as I lost 100 lbs through diet and exercise.  Until I can write some new material, I'm going to post some of the lessons I had to learn.  I didn't always enjoy learning them, but  I couldn't have gotten here without them.  There are, after all, no short cuts.

These posts come from my original blog, The Pudgy Parson--which I wrote as I started with my trainer and kept up through several years.  I was a pastor then-- and nothing but the poor victim client of my trainer. I didn't know everything I now know about the body.  I only knew that losing weight was hard.

Living like Winnie

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh

    I first saw this quote tattooed on my cousins body--which maybe makes me a laugh at little bit.  But the quote has sort of grabbed ahold of me, and it's become something that matters to me--something that I have to remind myself every now and then.  Because not only have I been guilty of limiting myself, I've been just as guilty at letting other people's thoughts and expectations limit me.

    He-who-trains taught me a lesson once. It was a high intensity cardio day, and I had been on the bike for almost 45 minutes.  I was sweaty and tired and fully believed that I had given it everything. I thought when the timer said "45", I was done.  Of course, that's the moment He-who-trains chose to come up and tell me that I wasn't done-- that that was only the first half.  And not only that, but that I was to crank up the resistance.  It's admittedly been awhile, but he said something like "When you think you can't go any more or any harder, put your head down and push through it."

I did.  And I'm only exaggerating a little when I say I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  If I thought I was sweaty before, I had not yet begun to sweat.  (No seriously, like wring me out because there is no dry spot on my shirt sweaty.)  But I've not forgotten what I learned: that there is much more in me than I am often able to realize.