All my life I was told I was too small, too weak to do so many things. I was picked last for everything from preschool to high school. I once dated someone who told me that his hitting me, torturing me and scaring me was his way of making me better and stronger. He was "toughening me up" because I was weak. I wasn't capable of being strong. When I decided to run my first 5k someone told me that I wasn't a runner. I wouldn't be until I had been doing it at least six months. WTF, right? I believed it all. I used them as reasons to dictate my life and keep me from trying things. It kept me scared and immobile and afraid to try anything physical or new. In the end, they were all excuses. Excuses I held on to because it felt safer that way than trying something new and possibly … [Read more...]