Athlete

    

For my entire existence my dad has always said, "Katie, you're naturally strong and powerful. You're an athlete."
That always seemed preposterous to me.  How could someone be an athlete at over 350 pounds? But I think I know now what he meant. I've been amazed by my body's transformation the past 15 months. It's not the slimming down or losing weight, but the muscles that have popped up that I didn't know existed. It has really surprised me.

Tonight when we were in the middle of our workout (killer arm exercises), Kayla kinda laughed and said, "Did you think a year ago we'd be doing this?" I don't think about that often anymore because I'm trying to look forward, but sometimes it just hits you. Before this started we would have been plopped in front of the TV, eating cheesy potatoes and complaining about life.

But tonight we started with cardio. Fifteen minutes on the treadmill, 15 on the bike. Then it was on to the hard part. We were doing bicep curls, tricep extensions, rows, pull-downs, and chest flies. Life looked positive. I felt powerful.  We even added some additional cardio because we were feeling so good.  I felt like an athlete. I felt like I was training for something. And maybe it's not training for the next big game or competition, but a better life.

So tonight I thought about all those times my dad told me that I was strong. I'm grateful for it, because without him I don't know that I would have ever believed it. I am blessed to have the capacity to be an athlete if I want to. Sometimes we're idiots. We settle for less than our best. Why is that? If  can do this, you can do this.