What Fitness Means to Me:
Thanks to my mom, I found fitness at a young age and started dancing somewhere around 5. Although I liked dancing, back then I didn't LOVE dancing. I found myself at every one of my little brother's soccer games, but soccer for girls hadn't really caught on at that time, Mia Hamm was just getting started. At 12 I joined my first girls team, played one season, tried out for a competitive, travelling team and made it. What I learned after my last game, 6 years later at 18... I didn't make it on the "A" team because I was good. My long time coach put me on the team because he knew I would out work everyone. I didn't know that about myself when I started, but I sure knew it when I was finished. Turns out, I didn't make it on ANY teams because I had rock star skills...I made it because I refused to be beaten.
Fast forward another 6 years (God, I'm getting old fast) and that little girl with the big work ethic is still pounding away.
I see fitness as an extension of my personality.
I'm not the girl on the elliptical with makeup on, not sweating. I'm the girl on the treadmill, sweating like a man, music turned up and occasionally, (unknowingly) singing my way through mile 4. Yeah, I'm that girl and I'm proud of it. I'm there, pushing past limits no matter how tired I am or how bad my un-diagnosed, sports induced asthma is. Fitness showed me that I have no limits. Fitness made me, and continues to make me, who I am.
Yeah, there's no muscle there...but that's not what fitness is about for me.
Thanks to my mom, I found fitness at a young age and started dancing somewhere around 5. Although I liked dancing, back then I didn't LOVE dancing. I found myself at every one of my little brother's soccer games, but soccer for girls hadn't really caught on at that time, Mia Hamm was just getting started. At 12 I joined my first girls team, played one season, tried out for a competitive, travelling team and made it. What I learned after my last game, 6 years later at 18... I didn't make it on the "A" team because I was good. My long time coach put me on the team because he knew I would out work everyone. I didn't know that about myself when I started, but I sure knew it when I was finished. Turns out, I didn't make it on ANY teams because I had rock star skills...I made it because I refused to be beaten.
Fast forward another 6 years (God, I'm getting old fast) and that little girl with the big work ethic is still pounding away.
I see fitness as an extension of my personality.
I'm not the girl on the elliptical with makeup on, not sweating. I'm the girl on the treadmill, sweating like a man, music turned up and occasionally, (unknowingly) singing my way through mile 4. Yeah, I'm that girl and I'm proud of it. I'm there, pushing past limits no matter how tired I am or how bad my un-diagnosed, sports induced asthma is. Fitness showed me that I have no limits. Fitness made me, and continues to make me, who I am.
Something I stumbled upon during my fitness journey, a mantra of sorts:
"Never give up when you still have something left to give. Nothing's ever over until the moment you stop trying."
I hope people can still see what my soccer coaches once saw. I hope I always have fitness to keep me finding new limits to break and showing me that nothing is impossible.
xox
Donna
Atlanta Activewear Style & Training Blog by Donna Burke, Atlanta Activewear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.AtlantaActivewear.Blogspot.com.
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