Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I love this motivational poster:

It reads:

It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.

It’s from A League of Their Own in this scene:

I love that movie and it makes me tear up every time I hear that line. The next time you’re thinking about throwing in the towel and giving up, remember this. It’s SUPPOSED to be hard. Getting past the hard is what will make you great.

I don’t know where this motivational poster came from. I got it here:

• Mediacache

If you know who made this image, please leave a comment below so I can give proper credit.

When I saw this photograph on Fit, Fast, and Furious I laughed so hard!

It took me a few seconds to realize that this guy was dressed up as Lakitu, who is the nice koopa who tells you which lap you’re on in Mario Kart and pulls you out of the lava, sand or water when you go off the track.

I immediately wanted to run that race. I wanted to throw green shells at the other runners and drop banana peels for the people pulling too close behind me. I wanted to get the Star so I could whiz past everyone else at super speed. I wanted to watch the other runners go off the track and get stuck in the water.

I want to go to there.

I absolutely ADORE this animated GIF from Believe To Achieve.

It reads:

Change is in the Challenge.

It is SO right! I only see changes in my body when I challenge myself. If I just keep coasting, everything stays the same. This realization got my butt off the comfy chair today and put my feet right on my treadmill desk where they belong. I made that desk for a reason, so I could work AND move.

Don’t forget, the change is in the challenge!!

I found this animated GIF on MotiveWeight. How do you use it? Click and drag on the image to find out which one you get.

I’m a big believer in “The Random.” You get the quote you need for the day. It’s the one that will help you on today’s journey. Remember it. Repeat it. Write it down. It will help you today. When tomorrow comes, you can come back here and get another chance.

I know this is a commercial for batteries, but I still LOVE it.

I love that line:

They didn’t call my name. Told me it was over. But I been deaf since I was three. So I didn’t listen.

Made me cry and inspired me to keep going. Thanks, Derrick Coleman. I sincerely had never heard of you before this Duracell commercial, but good going! I heard you won that Super Bowl thing, so congratulations.

Over five years, Sharee lost 121 pounds. She was featured on People magazine in their yearly “Half Their Size” issue. She writes daily on her Funeral For My Fat Tumblr. Here is an interview with her that is really nice.

For a lot of people who lose weight, there is that extra skin, but after a year or two, it usually snaps back. I understand Sharee’s decision to have the surgery, and while I was reading her blog, the recovery time didn’t seem like it lasted three months. Her swelling went down quickly and it felt like within just a couple of weeks, she was back into her routine. I’m just terrified of surgery, so I would rather deal with extra skin flopping around than go under anesthesia.

A long time ago, I was listening to a mountain climber talking about climbing mountains, clinging to those red cliffs here in Utah. He said,

You think about letting go LONG before you actually let go.

I was reminded of this the other day. I think about eating poorly LONG before I actually do it. If I could just stop thinking about it, I probably would never let go. I just need to STOP thinking and hold on!

Image via: Uzbekistan Mountain Climbing

I’m not a sporto girl. I have watched scant few sports movies, probably because they don’t really have any female characters who aren’t love interests. In fact, in this list of Top 10 Sports Movie Speeches, I have only seen ONE of the movies, and it was only an honorable mention.

It was League of Their Own, and honestly, the “There’s no crying in baseball,” is one of the most inspiring speeches I’ve ever seen on film. When I fell on my bike, ripped my hands open and bleeding, I thought, “There’s no crying in baseball.” When I’ve been so tired at the end of the 5K Halloween race at Gardner Village and I could barely climb that tiny hill right before the finish, I thought, “There’s no crying in baseball.” If you haven’t seen the whole thing, it’s here”:

After rewatching that speech, however, the BEST part comes when the umpire tells him that he should talk to each of his players like they’re his mother and he calls the umpire a penis with a hat on. I wanted to call the umpire worse. No, Mr. Umpire. We don’t need someone to talk to us like we’re their mother. We need to hear that there’s no crying in baseball!

I think the reason that list of Top 10 Sports Movie Speeches fell so completely flat for me is because I was never the target audience. Sports movies aren’t written for me. They’re written for over-the-hill jock boys who want to relive their past glory days. It’s an entire GENRE of movies that really just doesn’t care about HALF the population.

If find that incredibly sad. Where is the collection of motivational speeches made by women? They are RARE. Hayley in Stick It comes to mind, but her speech isn’t on YouTube. You can see part of it in the movie trailer:

“If you’re gonna eat mat, eat mat hard.” Yeah, don’t hold back. Don’t keep your best for later. Really give it all you’ve got and if you fail, fail hard. Why isn’t her speech on YouTube? Why was it so hard to find even a portion of that speech there?

The only other one I could think of was Bring It On with Gabrielle Union. Her Bring It speech is perfect. After Kirsten Dunst’s team has stolen her routine, her advice to them is spot on:

“You wanna make it right? Then when you go to nationals, bring it. Don’t slack off because you feel sorry for us. That way, when we beat you, we’ll know it’s because we’re better.”

We need more movies like this for our girls, except with ALL sports, not just gymnastics and cheering. Title Nine is not just about providing equal opportunity for girls, we need movies and inspiration for them as well. Until they do, women who could be great athletes will be lost.

“We should all do the Electric Run together. I think it would be fun,” I said, to the car full of my sister, Stacey, my brother-in-law, Dan, my husband, Mike, and my boy, Sean. Mike asked, “Is that the run where they throw paint all over you?” I laugh. No, that’s the Color Run.

“What? Do they shoot you with paintballs?” Dan asked. I answered, “I don’t think so. I think it’s colored chalk or something.” Mike chuckled, “That’s all I need when I’m trying to run a 5K, inhale a lungful of chalk dust.”

The conversation has gotten away from me and I try to steer it back. “The Electric Run is different. It’s at night and you wear glow necklaces and fluorescent clothing. They have black lights and disco music while you run. It sounds like fun.”

“Sounds great! The only problem I have with it is the ‘running a 5K’ part,” Mike is firm. He doesn’t want to participate in any run, no matter how fun. Dan said, “I’m not interested in that.” I was dropping people left and right. “I want to do that Zombie Chase thing,” Stacey replied.

“We can do that, too.” Now, instead of doing one race, I’ve agreed to do two, one of which, I’m running from Zombies through obstacle courses. “That one we should bring the trailers and camp down there before the race so we don’t have to drive so far,” I suggest. Dan agrees wholeheartedly and suddenly, I have a reason to train and run every day. Our whole family has decided to rally behind Stacey and me for these two races and are planning fun times together for them.

My butt has been on the treadmill EVERY day since this conversation.

I love this motivational poster that I found on That ARThletic Girl‘s site.

It reads:

Everybody works hard when they feel like it, but only the best do it when they don’t feel like it.

I have been following this mantra for a while now. I’ve hurt myself in a bunch of little ways: my foot had plantar facitist, I slightly ripped my hamstring, and a bad pair of shoes gave me blisters on my heels. Despite those injuries, I have found a way around them by walking or riding the exercise bike.

In fact, I just looked at my log and I haven’t missed a day exercising for five weeks. Some days I had to take it easy and just walk, but I didn’t just abandon my workouts. I modified them to accommodate my problems.

If I can do this, then you can as well. If you’re tempted to skip your workout, remember me, limping along with a torn hamstring. The best workout even when they don’t want to.