my story, continuing to unfold

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!