Many thanks to Kerry and Team 212 for selecting me for the September Member Spotlight. I am sincerely grateful not only for this opportunity, but for everything they have done to help get me here. I am a pretty introverted person so talking about myself is not an entirely comfortable experience, but if 212 life has taught me anything it’s to get out of my comfort zone. So here goes…
A few things about me:
1. I never leave home without a book
2. Ice cream is a major food group
3. Disproportionate space in my brain is dedicated to knowledge of the Brady Bunch
4. Most of the photos on my phone are of my cats, Bigby and Zelda
5. I have been with my partner, Matt, for 17 years and have only beaten him a handful of times at board games
6. I wanted to be Molly Ringwald when I grew up…I still might want to be Molly Ringwald.
Note: athletic pursuits or achievements did not make the list unless you count my 3 fantasy football championships. 😊
I had never really found a fitness routine that clicked. As a kid I was asked to leave dance class because, and this is true, I only wanted to imitate the Solid Gold Dancers. I have two left feet so my imitations must have been particularly upsetting for my teacher. Once a year I struggled my way through the President’s Physical Fitness Test in gym class. I joined basketball and softball only because my friends were doing it. I thought of gyms as places for glistening hard bodies in spandex. It felt like everybody else was relegated to Sweatin’ to the Oldies. Much respect to Richard Simmons and his more inclusive, body positive fitness message (plus sparkly tank tops!), but even a nerd like me felt too cool for that workout.
I had no interest in joining a gym when Matt, a veteran 212-er, tried to convince me to join. He insisted that 212 was a place and a community that would fit. Enter the Jeans Challenge “Challenge”. Matt and I made a deal that if I participated in the Jeans Challenge with him and I still didn’t want to join the gym, that he would drop the subject. It was NOT love at first run to the dumpstah. Planks only LOOKED easy. Even the smallest weight felt impossibly heavy. I couldn’t do a single push-up. Eventually, after much patient instruction and encouragement from the coaches I started to get better. The goal of doing one thing better today than yesterday started to click. By the end of 8 weeks, dance class dropout and fitness test failure, yours truly, could do a full a push-up.
Three plus years later I guess I technically lost the Jeans Challenge “Challenge, but in reality, I won. Sure, there are still plenty of things I still haven’t quite figured out (i.e. backwards skipping – I’m looking at you, Kerry), but even more that I have. Thanks to the support and instruction I found at 212, my body is capable of so many things now that it wasn’t before. For any newbies out there, trust me, if you stick with it, the planks will get easier, the kettlebells will feel lighter, and you will crush some push-ups.