This week I was blessed with a special opportunity to share my story, specifically "My Y Story." As an employee at my local YMCA, I have been very open with coworkers and Y members alike, about my issues with weight and my weight loss success story. Last fall, I told
my weight loss story here, or at least a bit of it. In that post, I shared how I had recently been hired to teach spinning classes at the Y. Since that time, I have been continuing to teach, but have also recently been named the supervisor of the group cycling department! This was an opportunity that surprised me, to be sure, but I accepted it wholeheartedly, and I've been working very hard to develop the best program possible. I am very passionate about fitness and wellness! It is indeed a blessing to be working in a job that allows me to support others in their journey to good health! And, by the way, this job keeps pushing me on my own journey to good health as well! How cool is that?
So, several weeks ago, one of my superiors at the Y approached me about interviewing me for a "Y Story" feature, which I told her I would do. That was the last I heard until about a week ago, when she told me she would like me to speak at our Y All-Staff Meeting to share my "Y Story." Specifically, she wanted me to tell about my weight loss success, and to include the role the YMCA played in my success. And... I hesitated. I, well, freaked out a little. Just thinking about standing up in front of all my coworkers and speaking about this made me so nervous. I really didn't want to say yes, but more than that I did not want to say no. Did you get that? I didn't
want to say yes, but I didn't want to say no
more. I knew that saying no would be easy to do, but I knew that I would most certainly regret that
no. I had to do it!
The night before the staff meeting, my speech was all written, my nerves were subsiding a bit, but I had gotten a cold and, wouldn't you know... I lost my voice! God is so funny! He stretches me to say yes to something He knows I don't want to do (which I know I need to do) and then sees what I'll do when I can't talk! He uses a cold (and temporarily lost voice) to show me that this thing I was so nervous about having to do, was just another opportunity (courtesy of Him, of course) to be more of who He has created me to be. All that I have gone through to really become healthy, and to value my body (and indeed my very self)... this was all made to share! What is the point of keeping it to myself? Who does that help?
I'm happy to share that my voice came back on Tuesday, and I was able to fully embrace the opportunity to tell my "Y Story." And, if you're interested, here's what I said (hey, but just know, I did take some of it from my old posts on this blog about my weight loss journey, so forgive any repetitiveness):
You may have heard “Everyone has a Y
story.” I have a Y story, but before my
Y story began, it was just my
story. I grew up as an overweight
child... I was the girl that all the other girls teased for being fat. My weight struggles continued all through
school. I went off to college a heavy
girl, and my weight did not improve in that setting. I was becoming more and more isolated, eating
poorly, and I wasn’t active at all. By
the time I graduated I was wearing at least a size 18.
My weight continued to climb in my
twenties. At my heaviest, in 2001, I
weighed just over 250 pounds. I was also
struggling at the time with an unknown condition... I was in constant pain and
suffered with extreme levels of exhaustion.
In 2002, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. That diagnosis changed everything. My health finally became important to me, and
I learned everything I could about how to manage my condition. I learned that I needed exercise, but all I
could start with was 10 minutes of walking.
I kept at it, and kept adding to my time until l was walking about an
hour each day. Very slowly, my weight
started to change. It took about 5 or 6
years, but I lost about 90 pounds... only my story wasn’t done yet.
In 2011, I experienced an unexpected
weight gain as a result of a medication change... I mean about 30 pounds in a
pretty short amount of time. And here is
the point where my story became my Y story.
In September 2011, I joined the Y and started coming to work out. What I love about the Y is how we’re all
different shapes and sizes. I could come to work out and I never felt judged or
out of place for being overweight. I
started trying new things I had never done before, and my weight really started
to change. By the following spring, I
had lost enough weight to get back to where I’d been, but I just kept on
going. I now weigh about one hundred
pounds less than when I was at my heaviest!
What is even better than reaching
such a healthy weight, is all the other ways that I have changed, changes that
don’t show up on a scale. I am now
healthy, active, confident, even athletic!
Without the influence of the Y, I don’t know if I EVER could have used
the word athletic to describe myself.
Before that unexpected weight gain that brought me to the Y, I really
thought I was healthy, but I hadn’t even come close to reaching my full
potential.
I’ve had some ‘full-circle’ type
moments along the way. Like last spring
running in my first 5K, which happened to be with Girls on the Run. And also like becoming certified to teach
indoor cycling, and actually going from Y member to Y employee, teaching my own
spinning class! Another surprise along
the way was recently being named the supervisor of the group cycling
department.
It seems like my story has been in
the making my whole life. Ever since I
was that little girl who wanted to change but didn’t know how, when I was a
young woman who didn’t believe she was good enough. All those painful moments, years spent struggling with my
weight, were writing my story, but my story wasn’t over. Even now, my story is still unfolding. Everything I ever thought to be unattainable
is now within my grasp. I allowed my
past to be defined by limitations, but now I choose a future defined by
unlimited potential! I’m grateful to the
Y for helping me go so much further than I ever thought possible.
The speech was very well received. Many of my coworkers did not know my history, and were quite surprised about my weight loss journey. They were especially surprised by the photo of me weighing about 250 pounds! Throughout this week, I've had several more conversations with people that were there the night of the meeting. So glad I didn't let this opportunity pass me by!
Thanks be to God for making it all possible, and for giving me those pushes I need to keep embracing the opportunities He sends my way!
