Athleticism

For a "chubby" girl, I am actually quite athletic. I played many sports when I was younger and was a dancer on the Pom Pom squad. Even though I was never a "trained dancer", I had a natural talent that helped me keep up with the best of them. But for some reason since those high school and college days, I have allowed myself to believe that athleticism was for other people and not me. While other friends trained for marathons and triathlons, I jokingly sneered that I was training for drinkathons and would only run if chased. 

But when I started to make my list of things I "feared" the majority of my list was athletic activity. Skiing, 5Ks, Tough Mudder, surfing, ice skating. I'm not sure when I allowed these activities to be reserved for the hotter/faster/stronger, but that attitude has put me in a mindset of "can't do". Friends go on skiing trips and I say, "I can't do that. I separated my shoulder on the bunny slope in the 8th grade and have never been back." My friends sign up for a ridiculous 5K fun run that even has a beer at the finish line and I say, "oh, there's no way I can run for 3 miles." It's kept me on the sidelines and out of the fun. 

So from here on out I'm banishing "can't do" from my vocabulary and replacing it with "haven't tried yet". I am treating myself to a ski trip at the end of February and my only goal is to not break myself. The flight is booked, the lesson is booked and the gear is all rented! I'm not gonna lie, I am nervous as hell. It scares the shit out of me, but that's exactly how I know that it's what I need to be doing.

I started a Couch to 5K program and I'm now in week 5 of that sucker. Yep, I am actually running which I'm sure for anyone who actually knows me is quite a shock. What's more? I'm really starting to like it. And on top of that, my gal pals and I have signed up for a mud race/obstacle course in May!

Later this year I will also tackle surfing (yep, they have surfing here in NYC), archery (because you need to be prepared in a zombie apocalypse) and ice skating. Ice skating is the biggest fear of all. I've always had an irrational fear that I will fall and someone will run over my fingers and slice them off. No idea where that one came from but I haven't been ice skating since I was 13. But GD it! I'm gonna do it!

No more "I can't do" only "I'm gonna do" from here on out!