Let’s talk about perseverance and the meaning of this tattoo.
I have never been “skinny.” I think it’s just in my genes. I’ve always struggled with my weight and worked out on and off since high school. In 2017, I found a great community at the Edge Fitness in Hamden. I worked out there consistently and lost about 25 pounds until the pandemic. When that happened, 2 of my favorite trainers there opened their own gyms. I continued to work out with them consistently but fell into a rut with my eating, especially over the next two years or so. I worked out and was going through the motions but continued to eat and drink whatever I wanted. I decided 2024 was the year I was going to take all of that back and work more closely with my trainer on hitting all of my goals, taking it day by day. So far this month, I have worked out in some form every single day and closed all of my exercise rings on my Apple Watch. I hit all of my protein, water, vitamin, and step goals for the day, and the biggest feat of all for me has been not drinking any alcohol this entire month. About a week ago, I decided I was going to take part in a Deka fitness competition that my gym was hosting. I have done these before when I felt I was in a little better shape, but the last one I completed was in April 2022, so I was just a tad nervous. If you are not familiar with the event, there are 10 zones that you must go through and it is timed. You are put into an age group and ranked based on your time. I have beat my own time in the past, but I really felt I was not going to beat my last time of 23:29 from the last race. While I have been going to the gym and doing most of the exercises and movements on the regular, it’s very different when you put 10 of them together in a race format. I was very doubtful of myself. When I finally finished and collapsed on the floor, my trainer was looking at my time and said, “OK so your last time was 23:29, you did this one in 27 minutes…” My heart sank. He looked at me and said “Just kidding, 21:48”. I nearly cried! I had beaten my time by 1:41! It doesn’t sound like a lot, but trust me, it is!
Although my trainer didn’t doubt me for a second, I doubted myself every step of the way. I harped on my weaknesses and kept thinking I was too out of shape to even come close to beating my time. If there is one thing I learned from him, it’s perseverance. Even when I wanted to die and quit the race, he kept saying “Just get to the next station, just keep moving.” I also want to shout out my son, who also completed the kids race with an amazing time of 13:24. He wore the perfect shirt for the race that day.
