When the FitLifeSF Challenge was born, I was sitting in front of a video poker machine in Tahoe on my birthday, on crutches, into my third-ish tequila, back up to my pre-running/pre-nutritionist weight, having just come from a big-ass pasta dinner at Lanza’s… And then I hit a $1000 hand and thought it would be fun to put some of that into a contest to inspire the FitLifeSF community– but mostly myself– to really commit to getting a jumpstart on feeling great about ourselves in 2010. “Fun,””inspire,” and “feeling great about ourselves” being a few of the operative words.

In the time since we’ve announced the contest, we’ve been in touch with many of you about joining up, and I’ve been a little surprised and quite intrigued by the responses. Turns out, “see how much you can improve your fitness in 10 weeks and maybe win $100” touches on more nerves than I expected. The vast majority of responses fit into these categories:

• “I’m not in good enough shape yet to participate in a get-in-shape contest.”
• “I don’t want to join because I will feel like a failure if I don’t do well.”
• “I don’t want anyone to know my numbers/take a before picture, etc.”
• “I’d be totally down to do something like this at some unspecified point in the future when any of a number of stars align and I can finally do something like this.”

I’m not sharing this feedback to shame anyone– to the contrary, I am sharing it to let you know that loads of people have had this kind of a reaction. In other words, you are not alone!

If you’ll let me, I’d like to share a few universal truths I’ve picked up along the way- ones that I need a swift kick in the butt to remember more often than not… 

• Everyone starts at the beginning. “A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step,” “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end…” All that jazz. Life is a series of starts. Waiting until you have put in the work to get to a place where you are ready to “start” means you’ve discounted the hardest part of the journey! The reason to document your true starting point is so that you can celebrate each and every victory and see how far you’ve come. We aren’t putting this contest together to watch already-fit people pump ‘roids and get ripped, we’re doing it as a means to unify all the people we talk to about fitness, day-in-day-out– people who share common struggles but often vastly different goals– so that together we can push each other to succeed.

• No matter where you start, you’ll be there again. It’s not jumping in the first time that’s the most difficult, it’s jumping in AGAIN and AGAIN every time something gets in the way and you find youself back at the start. It happens to everyone. And it’s OK.
• You cannot fail unless you choose to. And, subpoint A: “The only way to fail is not to try.” A more truthful way to word this one might be, “I’m afraid to start because I might decide to stop midway through and then I’d be embarrassed/disappointed in myself.” Every day we are faced with choices, and, really, all you have to do is make the right choice more often than not and you are golden. If you set out on this challenge with a goal of losing 10 pounds, that’s good… but if you set on this challenge with a goal of exercising 5 times a week for at least a half an hour and cutting fried foods and soda out of your diet, that is better. Because the latter is something you can take day by day, choice by choice, and the wonderful thing is you cannot fail unless you consciously choose to.
• There is no “good time.” There will never be a time where it’s easy to make healthful changes. In fact, I’ll bet that January 2011 is going to be WAY more hectic for you than January 2010… but I can tell you this– the longer you wait, the greater the inertia to not make those changes. And, if you don’t do something NOW, you’ll get to 2011 ten pounds heavier, 2012 ten heavier still… and that’s just not good for your health and longevity.
• We all have a pretty good idea what you look like in shorts and a workout top already. None of us are supermodels (except you, of course!)… and we’re not SUPPOSED to be. We have jobs and lives and families… Most of us don’t love the way we look in 50% of the photos we take in normal clothes, much less workout clothes. Now, I’ll admit that when I wrote the line about “we won’t post your before pic unless you don’t finish the challenge,” I was writing that for myself. Having a punitive element helps me stay on goal– but clearly it doesn’t for the rest of you. So, I’ll promise you this: Your before photo will ONLY be shown if you win the contest OR if you give us permission to post it to showcase your awesome achievements.

Look, this whole fitness/fatness/how-do-I-look thing is, for a lot of people, very emotional and tied into really deep-seated ideals and self-worth… frustrations, fears, insecurities. All those Oprah words. I just want to make it clear that we didn’t intend to make any of you feel like we’re judging your worth as a human being, it just happens to be the case that numbers on a scale and how your clothes fit are pretty darned good ways to decide the winner of a 10-week fitness contest. And, I thought you might find comfort in knowing that the person next to you on my Facebook list is dealing with the same fears and challenges that you are, so how about a group hug?

Now, those of you who know me are probably saying, “That Smurf is so full of shit. She makes me delete every picture of her off Facebook where she thinks she has a double chin.” The truth is, those photos DO make me feel less about myself as a person and bring with them mountains of negative self-talk– to a pretty startling degree. It’s something I admit I need to work on. In fact, the reason I’ve never posted a before/after photo set of myself on this blog is because I’ve never taken a before/after photo I’ve been willing to share. (When I was at goal weight last year, I actually said, “Cool, I’m getting close to having a ‘before’ pic!”) And that is the utmost in hypocrisy. It’s unfair for me to ask you to do something that scares the crap out of me, so I’ll share with you my very first before picture from February of 2008. (Remember you don’t need to take a pic in a midrift-bearing top if you don’t feel comfortable with it.)

Is the world still spinning? Have you all defriended me? Will you ever view me in the same light again? Yeah, it scares the crap out of me to post that, but… you know what? This shouldn’t be about feeling badly about ourselves, it’s about self-improvement, feeling great, and above all preserving health so that we can party together in the old age home.

With all that said, we’d still really love for you join us in the challenge if you’d like… But, if a contest like this is just not your thing, we hope that 2010 will surpass your wildest dreams and leave you happy, healthy and blessed! We look forward to celebrating you and your successes…