Owning your fitness

LosingLaurensWay

Recently, I noticed a new development in my journey. It’s not a new pair of jeans or a new weight, rather a new mental state - I’m excited about being physically active! My freshman year of college was my most “active” year. I had played in AAU basketball for two years in high school and worked out every day. I was at my physical peak. I took a kickboxing class, confident in my supposed physical fitness and was shocked at how much that class owned my butt! For years kickboxing remained a symbol of where I once was, what I could once do before I gained over 150 lbs. Tomorrow, I will test myself to this standard and go to my first kickboxing class in six years. I couldn’t be more excited!

My twitter used to be filled with humorous tweeters, my google search history of video game news, now its fitness tweets and weightlifting searches. I’m not only obsessed with losing weight, but getting faster and stronger. On my days off when it’s nice outside I want to go for hikes, bicycle rides, go running with my friends. Suddenly, I’m excited about physical activity.

If someone came to me two years ago and said that you would be excited about going to a kickboxing class, that I would be confident in my ability to complete the class, that I was going to test and push myself, I never would have believed you. At that time physical activity was an embarrassment. Walking around campus was a chore and a heavy burden. I would wait 20 min for a bus to take me 2 blocks instead of walking for 5 minutes to get there. I would park as close as I could because those few extra steps were literally too much to handle.

Coming up on the Fourth of July weekend I am going back to my Alma Mater, Penn State University, for the wedding of one of my old roommates and good friends. The first thought in my mind was not which bars I needed to visit or certain nostalgic landmarks to go to, it was to run around campus, to walk all over downtown. I wanted to be like the people I saw run past me every day walking to class. I wanted to go to campus and destroy my memories of helplessness and despair by running over every damned paved surface, to make a new memory of a newer, stronger, more physically fit Lauren. I wanted to walk the full distance from campus to my old apartment. I wanted to show myself how far I’ve come and that the Lauren of college is no more.

I am excited about physical activity and it has become a symbol of my inner strength and determination. If you happen to be at University Park during the Fourth of July and see a 6’1” girl sweating, and crying know that they are tears of happiness and cries of victory. I have entered a new era, an era of mental, physical and spiritual strength.

If you want to know more about my journey check out http://foodtruce.wordpress.com/

twopeas2

Amazing! Thankyou for sharing and have a great time