Losing weight and training hard is as much as an emotional and mental journey as it is a physical one and it's often more so a mental one than anything. It takes a strong will power of the mind to push the body to succeed and achieve a stronger physical body. It's very much a from the inside out kind of thing.
One of the joys of my job is helping, guiding and seeing people become stronger -- mind, body and soul. And it's very cool when I see them evolve into their better selves right before my eyes. You'd be surprised what a dash of encouragement and a cup of cheer can really do for someone. I see it everyday and it's pretty awesome.
One of our Hulkies that has really been transforming before my eyes has been that of my Poster Girl Child. She's a 16 year old in the body of a 16 year old but who sports the innocence and girlish giggle of a 10 year old. When she first walked through the doors of Hulk's, she was overly shy and clearly lacked the confidence that her two friends by her side sported. I introduced her to some of our other female Hulkies and they were quick to take her under their wings. She's remained very much the club's cutie but these days many of us have noted big changes happening in her and it's not in her weight. She's been pretty consistent with losing weight and is more than ever curious about how to eat clean but her interest in Hulk's has shifted from solely being about training and losing weight to socialising and being one of the "ladies". She's started liking boys and not just boys in general but a particular young man who used to train at Hulk's -- a friend of mine who often visits and I expect to return to training. I thought it funny when she told me but then I had to remind myself that she IS 16. She's not a child anymore despite the fact that many treat her like she is. I too am guilty of treating her like a child, I blame it on just how adorable she is and her giggle.
These days she's really been coming into her own and her confidence and social mannerisms have dramatically improved. She messages me on Facebook and KakaoTalk, "likes" my photos, comments under my pictures, and than there's her increased social manner at the club. She lingers around both before and after training, asks about particular members and now she's all buddy-buddy with Pyen Chi. Our Poster Girl Child once used to be so scared of Pyen Chi but now she's seen taking pictures with her and hugging her. I can always count on my Poster Child Girl to participate in our club monthly fitness challenges and the fact that she just one the last one we hosted, the squat challenge, was very exciting. We were all so proud of her.
These days Fridays seem to be "our time" together -- Poster Child Girl and my "girl time", I suppose you could say. Fridays are Free Train Day at Hulk's and I run the club by myself. For the past five Fridays in a row Poster Child Girl has arrived for training but hasn't trained on one Friday. Instead, she arrives, usually shortly after 7pm and then stays for several hours, sitting beside me chatting. Her average Friday night visit to Hulk's is about 3 hours with tonight her arriving at 7pm and leaving at 10:40pm. She would have stayed longer too but her mother dropped by the club, wondering where she was. We were watching a movie together and eating egg ding-dings I had cooked up. Every Friday this is our thing, apparently. She comes to Hulk's, sits herself down beside me and we chat for a few hours. I make her a steamer to drink and then end up cooking up extras for her of whatever snack I want to nibble on. She's a good kid but I have to stop thinking of her like a kid. She's turning into quite the young lady and it's pretty cool to see her transforming into such. She may not be losing the weight as fast as she should and could be but at her age I'm sure she's distracted with trying to come into her own and build her own sense of self. I think she's pretty cool already, always has been cool to me, but I love the increase in confidence she has and her new found fierceness.
No comments:
Post a Comment