What’s Beautiful: Perseverance

Disclaimer: This post is part of a sponsored by Under Armour through FitFluential. My overwhelming love for this movement and everything it stands for is 100% my own.

Five and a half years ago, I began a journey to find myself. If you know me, if you’ve read my blog for any length of time, or if you’ve ever read my weight loss story, you know that I didn’t grow up athletic, healthy, or confident, and I certainly didn’t feel beautiful. My body felt like my enemy, a prison, and I treated it as such. I allowed it to hold me back, and I fed into an identity that wasn’t me.

I looked at other women and dreamed that one I day I would wake up and look the way they looked. My idea of beauty was skin-deep and conveniently “unachievable”. It’s so easy to tell yourself you can’t do it. It is so much more difficult to try and risk failing.

As I changed my eating and exercise habits, I was surprised by my success. Shocked, even. Everything I’d ever wanted seemed to be happening, and I thought my dreams were coming true. I was left feeling completely lost when, after losing 75 lbs, I never did reach my goal weight, and in my mind, never achieved the “beauty” I was after.

Everything changed the day I started running. For the first time in my entire life, I saw my body for what it was able to do for me. I saw strength, determination, and beauty in who I am, and in that I found the identity that had been buried all along–I found my identity in my ability to take on challenges, to fight, push, crawl, and not give up until I’ve achieved my goal. I realized that this is a gift that is inside of me, and that not everyone has that same determination, that same perseverance.

Around this time last year, I decided I needed something–something big, and in a moment of excitement and slight impulsiveness, I committed to raising $5,000 for Chances for Children AZ and running THE New York City Marathon. The 18 weeks of training were some of the hardest and most rewarding of my entire life, and when news of the marathon cancelation hit, I took it very hard.

Despite completing my first marathon a couple of months later, this journey has continued to feel unfinished for me. Maybe it’s because I dreamed of running that specific race, maybe it’s because I ran my first marathon injured, and didn’t feel like I really got the opportunity to go out there and give everything I had, or maybe it’s that stubborn part of me that NEEDS to finish what I start. So that is exactly what I WILL do.

When I was asked to set a goal for this movement, I found myself, for the first time ever, at a bit of a loss. Running is what is in my heart, but I’d only been back for a week, and the most I’m allowed to run at one time is currently 30 minutes. However, I have almost 6 months, and I know in my heart that THIS is the goal I need to achieve. The goal I WILL achieve. On November 3rd 2013, I will finish the journey I began a year ago (or five and a half years ago).

I challenge you to join me–set a goal that’s big, scary, and a goal you know you NEED to accomplish. Don’t use the word “try”. Find a goal and say I WILL.

If you would like to join me and set your own goal, you can sign up here. You can join teams, follow other women along in their journeys, and most importantly you can prove to yourself that you are capable of amazing things, that you can be strong, persevere, and discover a beauty inside you that you may not have acknowledged before.