Me to We

In January I started this blog as a public committment - I was going to spend the year trying to become a healthier person. I'm working on it, and I know that slowly I am evolving into one. A few weeks later I came across the SwimBikeMom.com blog, and took comfort in reading one woman's process from sedentary, working mom, to olympic triathlete. Through the spring season of Girls on the Run program, I found myself internalizing the lessons and thinking that a similar program needed to be created for grown women - a group experience that celebrates the individual, encourages healthy relationships, and contributes to a productive community. By working with other women on that program, and by extending my "get healthy" conversations with other friends and co-workers, I gradually saw that type of community already existing in front of me - I'd just never realized it was there before.

These days, everywhere I go, I get to hear successes. I know a woman who has been very overweight her entire life who just joined Weight Watchers and finished her first 5K. She walked it, and maybe someday she'll run one, but she has now tried it and can visualize herself as part of a world that she never thought she could belong to before. My SBM inspiration not only rocked her olympic triathlon, but she's training for a half-iron. At the pool other swim team parents share their daily activities, my colleagues are flocking to zumba and starting to run. It's awesome.

In the past few days I have made a Facebook page for MGM and have been working on figuring out all of the required paths to get what is here there, etc. I want to pull all of these amazing people together. I want to say "we can do this" to all of them. When I started, I thought I was working to overcome the laziness inside. I thought I'd be the same person but hopefully a few pounds lighter and without the guilt at the doctor's office. I'd forgotten that I'm a happier person when I exercise, but what I'd really forgotten was that I am a much happier person, and frankly, a better person, when I'm part of a team.

Thank you again to everyone who is joining me.