Question of the Week: What Health or Fitness Goal Do You Want to Reach Next?


I’m in the middle of Amber Krzys’s Rock Your Body Challenge (love it!), and it’s given me a lot to think about regarding my physical body.

I was a very fat kid in elementary school and middle school. I despised gym class, and I especially hated physical fitness testing. My best mile time? Twenty-one minutes.

It was humiliating to run with my jiggling gut or to miss hitting the volleyball every single time. The teasing from my peers got so bad that in high school I flat out refused to participate.

After sitting on the bleachers for a few days, I was told that I wouldn’t pass the year if I didn’t do something. In a moment of pure gutsiness, I asked to be put into the dance class…for my remaining 3 years of high school. Most students only got one semester of dance, if they were lucky to get a spot.

I’m still surprised that the gym teachers agreed to my demands, but they knew how bad the bullying had gotten. So I did ballroom dancing, country line dancing, tap, jazz, and hip hop instead of sports, weightlifting, and dodge ball.

I may be a sucky athlete, but I can dance like I should be on tour with Britney Spears. For realz. It must be my Type A personality because the structured beats made sense to me in a way that other activities didn’t. I’m also a pro at step aerobics.

So I learned that I didn’t dislike exercise. I just hadn’t found my perfect match. I lost a ton of weight during the last 2 years of high school, and I decided to major in Physical Education in college (imagine that!).

My weight still fluctuates, but I can see my body as something special now instead of a burden.

Did you like gym class when you were a kid? How do you feel about your body?

Now that the end of the year is coming up, I’ve been thinking about my health and fitness goals. Next on my list is to lose the pounds I’ve gained this year. Starting a business from scratch led to some stress eating for me (eep!).

When you think about your fitness goals, focus on the things that make you happy and not what you think you should be doing. I know I need to stick with dance instead of running on a treadmill.

In the comments below, share the health or fitness goal you want to reach next.

2 Comments

  1. BlessedMama on November 9, 2013 at 3:29 pm

    Two goals: Break through into the next pound, and exercise five to six days a week.



  2. Sarah @ Long Island Nerd on November 6, 2013 at 7:27 am

    Oooh great post! Honestly my fitness goal is just to get back into a gym routine. I’ve been out for so long because I’ve been sick and visiting so many drs and getting horrific and invasive tests done and it’s just time to get back into the habit. I think my problem is that I’m also an all or nothing kind of girl so the idea of starting out with 3 days a week never crossed my mind bc I went for 5 or 6 days a week for so long. So my goal is to get back into the gym 3 days a week and from there increase it.

    When I was a kid I was overweight but fairly athletic. I wasn’t an elite athlete but I did fairly well in most sports but I never joined any teams or anything. I loved hockey, I skated almost every day and had a brief stint where I loved tennis. In my 20s I fell in love with kickboxing, boxing and muay thai and trained in that for 6 years before my bad neck and shoulders took me out. I’m working on finding a new low impact sport to take up 🙂 I have never in my life looked like an athlete but I certainly had periods of my life where I was in pretty good shape.