This Is You Now

Let go.

Move on.

The old you isn’t here anymore.

There’s just a shadow that is sort of your height, sort of your face, sort of you. Enough to remind yourself of yourself.

But the new you came into being long before this day.

She was born way back when you picked up that barbell with bumpers for the first time. When someone told you you could throw down the weight and it was okay.

• When you learned the word "pood" was a Russian unit of weight used for kettlebells, not just bathroom talk

• When you pulled yourself up over that bar or threw yourself down in a burpee. (Yah, burpees!)

• When you deadlifted more than your bodyweight

• When you learned that all gym behavior didn't have to be "nice" and polite and that most machines couldn't help you as much as squats and push-ups could

• When you learned that strong felt so much better than skinny.

You saw the changes in your body, but, even more than that, you felt the changes in your soul.

The barbell started a riot inside you.

And you weren't ever going to calm down and accept what society said.

You were done with being a sheep. You were ready to rage. Let the "experts" sell crap to some other sucker, because you had a date with the Clean and Jerk and you never felt more powerful than when that barbell was overhead in your hands.

You became stronger than you'd ever been.

And there was no way in hell that you were going back to the dead-end world with the zombies on their cardio machines.

This is you now.

You look a little bit like the old you ... but you freed that old version of yourself a long time ago.

You let go. You moved on.

And – surprise – the world looks better now than it ever did before.