Transformation isn't about hiding...

I was flipping channels the other night and came across the show Extreme Weight Loss with Chris Powell.  This show is basically Biggest Loser but just focused on one person and they show the transformation over the 365 days.  There are three phases to this process and the first is 90 days of bootcamp with an amazing coach in Colorado.  The girl that was chosen was a former UCLA cheerleader that had reached 309 pounds at the age of 37.

In the taping they show her coaching her team in California of high school cheerleaders and then Chris Powell shows up as a knight which was the team mascot but also I suppose her knight sweeping her away to safety.  This young girl was then asked to step on a scale in the middle of the football field in front of her girls which she has been leading and remove her shirt in the process.  She was nervous, scared and excited all at once...but definitely petrified to remove her shirt on television and bare it all.  

Chris Powell had some amazing words that he said in this crucial moment of her life...
"It takes a ton of courage….Transformation isn’t about hiding, it’s not about protecting the addiction, it’s about exposing it. And once you bring it to light it’s not going to control  you any more. No one is going to judge you here.  Nothing but love and unconditional support here."

After my post this past week with my before and after fifteen years apart I received many positive comments and many on how proud I should be of the person I am today.  Some couldn't believe how brave I was to share such a drastic comparison publicly.  I suppose I am brave but I really wanted people to know that change is possible.  I have no clue how much I weighed in that picture because scales weren't in my game plan at that time but I would guess I was probably at my heaviest ever.  A year after that pic I got married and started my first transformation.  I found that new person at 23 years old and felt strong.  Transformation should just be my middle name for I definitely had to work at making these changes again and again after every baby.  It was nothing I was ever shy about or tried to keep hidden.  It was a way of life.

So now I share this so that someone can see that even though you may have been stuck in that same hole for more than a year now, you have the tools to dig yourself out of it.  Once you are ready and tell yourself and believe it that you can make the change it will happen.  When you have the support system around you to keep you believing in you and pushing you along the way, it will happen.  You have to be willing to take that first step towards the stronger, positive, healthier you and away from the negative disruptive you.  Everyday I want to push myself to stay in this zone...as tired as my legs may feel...I will still get on the bike today.

I really hope my courage of sharing publicly, much like that girl on EWL, will make a difference in that one person's belief in themselves.  My story is an open book with dark, gloomy scary chapters and ones filled with butterflies and sunshine.  I am not hiding where I came from or where I am going and writing this all down helps me keep it exposed and keeps me going.  I am now in control of me and can steer myself down whatever path I choose...that is a wonderful feeling.

The girl on the EWL show ended up losing 175 pounds!!  She was able to let herself shine as she felt it had been bottled up for so long...she was literally glowing at that final weigh in.  A year of no joke hard work and pushing herself to the ends of her own limits found her in a place she had only dreamed of being.  It was amazing to watch.  She embraced the suck that was every workout, healthy choice, early wake up call, recovery post late night binge, and mile ran.  She gave it her all.


Embrace the suck...choose you!