Getting fit is not just about a number on the scale. This matters!  

Let me tell you why…with a story.

Back, WAY back when I was in elementary school. We had these PE tests that would show up each year. Are you familiar with these? All the 4^th graders would gather around the PE instructor, and he would start to lay out the daily drill…

“Today we are going to test your endurance and strength! We will be doing sprints, sit-ups, and then chin hangs. Each of you will be tested as individuals and receive a pass or fail grade!”

Every year upon hearing the word, “Chin hang”, I would go into a full-blown sweaty panic!  Literally as a 9-year-old I was looking for the nearest door or window. Maybe the building would catch on fire, and we would be forced to leave the gymnasium. Or if I could just spontaneously disappear into thin air, never to be seen again, that would be perfect! Help me, Mom!

This story is NO exaggeration. It was terrifying for me.

Each year had the same lousy outcome. I would watch all the “tiny little ballerina girls” (this was my language as a 4^th grader), easily pull themselves up to the bar and then hang for what seemed like an eternity. Easy peasy. No problem. Anyone can do it!

Except me.

Inevitably, even though I had made my way to the back of the line, somehow my turn would arrive. To try and muster up some courage I would say in my head, “C’mon Keleen, you can do it.  It’s easy.  Just pull up really hard!”

But somehow, even with my one last ditch effort to bring to life some warrior like strength, I could not pull myself up anywhere. Not even close…and certainly not into a hang. I could hear the PE teacher encouraging me to try harder but mostly all the 4^th grade boys taunting my efforts. When I finally let go of the bar and dropped to the ground to make my way past all the other 4^th graders I would hear the same old mocking words…“Kelly, belly, full of jelly.”  

…And another year of failing the National PE test of endurance and strength had come and gone.

I know it’s a depressing story…don’t go anywhere…there is a happy ending.

At 42 years of age when I had decided I had had enough of being out of shape and in physical pain I obviously had one main goal. Lose weight. I know I needed to. It was the big plan.

But when I started spending time at the gym, I noticed that pull up bar sitting in the corner just staring at me and those elementary PE days came cascading back through my memories. I stared at that bar for some time until my trainer said to me, “You got a bone to pick with that bar?”  And I said, “Why yes, I do!  I need to learn how to do pull ups. I HAVE to be able to do pull ups!”

For the next 6 months we worked. I used assisted pull up machines, bands and even my coach’s hands on my feet to hoist me up, over and over and over again. Some days I would think, “Ok I’m ready I can do this on my own.”  But to no avail, I could not do it alone.

Then one day, to the expertise of my then trainer he said, “You know, Keleen, you are only 1 inch away from doing this by yourself. It’s really the middle of the pull up that’s the hardest. It’s not really the top of your pull-up. You CAN reach the top easily…you just have to use all your strength right in the middle.”

I don’t know why…but suddenly that made sense. I was 1 inch away.  All I needed to do was pull harder for 1 tiny little inch. I could do this!

I jumped up on that bar and with every ounce of my strength, and to squash that horrible elementary memory once and for all, I pulled up with all my might. I pulled like my life depended on it…the lives of my children, my husband and in the name of everything that was good and important to me…I gave it all I had!!

Up and over my chin went. Up and over that pull up bar!  1 pull up!! All by myself!

That was a good day!

I am now 55.  I can do 4 sets of 10 reps on any day of the week! BAM!

Those pull ups were bigger than the scale. Pull-ups taught me more about me, than my lousy scale. Accomplishing that goal defined me better than any number on any scale ever would or ever could.

In fact, when I learned how to do just 1 pull up…that was the beginning of everything else. Now I believed that…“No one could stop me!”

Change it up:

Sit down and take a minute to define one very personal and important reason for getting your health in order. It’s going to be very unique to you. Spend time focusing in on that. Plan goals around accomplishing that 1 action.

That one thing, could be the catalyst in helping you put great meaning to the WHY behind better Health and fitness!

Now go get it!