I love how exercise makes me feel.
And for the longest time, that's something I didn't see myself saying. I absolutely hated sport in school. I was asthmatic, bad at everything but sprints, and if it wasn't for my wonderful teacher who always made sure nobody got bullied or laughed at it would have been deeply humiliating years (it was, but it could have been so much worse).
Didn't keep me from trying. At university I tried all kinds of sports, most of them were fun even if I still sucked at it, but it always took me more than an hour to get there, hour back, combined with weather and much work and study and several jobs it was tough to stick with it. You know, making yourself go there. Actually show up. Tough thing.
Until I got into a floorball team run by my Finnish teacher. Mixed team of all ages, different nations, "good" and "bad" players, but it was love at first match and so much fun - until a couple of really bad accidents that eventually made me stop, and it took over a year until the knee was healed enough to be able to walk without pain again.
So when work paid enough I signed up in a gym close to home, because I did some weightlifting in university and always loved it, but the distance in university made me not stick to it (and I had finished uni anyways). Always wanted to go to the gym, and now it was close, but still never really got into making it a habit.
Fast forward to this year, when I'm finally both able to make it a habit (well, seriously working on it anyways) and also confident enough to stop worrying am I too fat, do I look stupid, I'm sweating much more than anybody else and it's embarrassing, I didn't shave in a week, what will people think when they look at me.
No. Fuck all that. Every single of those things haunting me in the back of my head are bullshit and fake societal beauty standards that deserve to go to hell. Instead, look at what my body is able to do. Look how hard I'm trying, and how I'm pushing my limits. Look how I'm enjoying working out. How I'm looking forward to go to the gym. How I'm going there when I'm having a bad day as a coping mechanism as well as on good days because it's something I love doing. It's something that makes me feel good, and strong, and benefits my overall wellbeing.
Because I love how it makes me feel.
I'm so glad I reached that point, and found a sport that I enjoy (and that doesn't destroy my joints like floorball did 😅 I still miss floorball though, it was most fun with the team I was in back then. Props to every single one in it).
And I'm very grateful for all the wonderful people in the fitblr community here, both that I'm in contact with and those I'm too shy to say hi but follow and find highly inspiring. You're all amazing and it's a wonderful community. Thank you for making sport not suck! Past-me would not be able to believe this.
@marine-corps-strong @m0tiv8me @belovedgoofball @integrationslady @the-curvy-crossfitter @runnersandheels @runrunningrunner @justhiitit @geneticallymodifiednerd @vitvit18 @tenacioustam @xtinedancefit @maddygoesthemiles
