"I Can Do This. I Can Do Anything."

Once she said it enough times, she started to believe it

This paper was on the wall in my garage when I started training people.

The workout of the day called for a 400-meter run but Sara* couldn’t do that.

She had already lost 40lbs but she was a larger woman, close to 250 lbs. This was her first workout with me and, as we stood in my garage, I took a dry erase marker and put a slash through the 400-meter run.

“We’re going to do 100 meters and we’re going to walk it,” I said. “Just up the street a little bit and we’ll come back.”

Sara got winded easily and we had to stop a few times on the walk but she hung in there.

“You can do this,” I said, walking next to her. “You can do anything.”

She nodded but I didn’t know if that nod was for me or for her. I was pretty sure the tears were for her, though. She blinked them back.

Then I heard the words, barely above a whisper: “I can do this. I can do anything.”

And that’s what we did the first day. A 100-meter walk, a few knee push-ups, some high squats, and a few light kettlebell swings. And I sent her home.

But She Came Back