...in a far way castle there lived a beautiful princess who.....****screeech***. (Insert record scratching noises).
OK, there was no beautiful princess nor a castle. But there was a girl who woke up one day and decided to change her life. And the story also includes a handsome man who came along to help save the day. Plus eventually, a NOT-AT-ALL-EVIL, but very beautiful stepsister, moved into the picture to complete this fairy tale. I digress, so let's get down to bidness.
My name is Wendy Kennedy. I am a normal, average, regular woman going about life, doing the 9 to 5 gig. Living a moderate life, not feeling very adventurous nor very excited about life. I was happy, I thought with my marriage, with my family, just floating along seemed ok.
Then I am not quite sure what happened, but around my 40th birthday, I had an epiphany. The day was beautiful, the sun shone down and I decided I was going out for a walk one evening, which I did quite a lot. It was a nice walk, just around town.
I came back to the house, and a friend of my son's was there visiting. She asked me if I was out for a run. My husband (who denies he said this..haha), opened his mouth and said, "Haaa, Wendy is no runner". It was like time stood still with those words. SILENCE. The world stopped rotating on its axis. I looked at him with the Glare of Death, walked into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. "Wendy is no runner". Over and over in my head I heard it. Then it was like some alien being had taken over my mind...why the HELL was I NOT a runner?? I had legs, and a heartbeat. I often dreamed of running but thought it was something above me, that I was perhaps incapable of doing. Hell to the NAW baby. It. Was. ON. Like Donkey Kong.
I came out to the computer, sat down and hit up Google. I found a Learn to Run clinic starting in Lethbridge. The next day, I walked into that running store, whacked down my credit card on the counter and said, "Sign me up".
I have never looked back since that moment. Perhaps I owe it ALL to my husband for saying what he did. Perhaps it was divine intervention that day. I am not sure. But from that moment, the old Wendy was dead and gone. The new girl in town had a drive & determination and a new attitude. It took it's toll at first. My husband didn't know WHAT the HELL had possessed me and who was the person he was married to? He didn't understand why I was doing it and to be honest we almost gave up on us at one point because I changed so much and he stayed right where he was. It was rough. After he saw this was no whim, and it was for reasons that he was now beginning to understand and appreciate, he became my biggest cheerleader and to this day could not be more supportive of the things I undertake.
My body was changing...I wasn't overweight, just out of shape. My story isn't one of weight loss of mass proportions. It's a story of getting healthy, getting up off my ass and DOING something and changing my attitude towards life and everyone that was in it. Change was a'comin' baby. Buckle up for the ride.
This lead me to try new things, like ChaLean, which then lead me to talk about it, and often. I had more questions in my inbox week after week, because people could see the changes in me and wanted to know LOTS about it. Then I decided to create a Facebook group, for my little circle of friends, for them to post questions and me answer them, all condensed into one place. So from that came the creation of I See Fit People. I believe the initial invite was to 6 of my close friends. The next day I log in there is something like 20 people. What the hell? Where did they come from? The next day, more...I didn't really know why but people were interested in what I had to say. So I went with it. I talked about what I knew, what I learned and listened to them as well with their feedback. ISFP was growing! WOW!
I think I was at around the 400 mark when I decided to create a Facebook page, which I did. Everyone had to rejoin there and that took a while to build back up, but it did.
All during this time, there were replies from some guy who seemed to be getting comfy at ISFP. His name was Matt. He seemed to say everything I was thinking and his replies always resonated with me. It was like his hands were typing my words. It. Was. Bizarre. Hmmmmm.
One day I was talking about how much I WASN'T going to be following along with the P90X nutrition plan, and how I was doing my homework on my own to get one that worked for me. In comes a message from Matt, offering to send me the Insanity nutrition guide. Why was he doing this, I wondered? Stalker? Crazed Asylum escapee? Was he was genuinely interested in helping? LOL...so I said OK! From that one single moment of interaction came a whole series of events that have changed and shaped BOTH our lives. We talked about everything, learned lots about each other, and we quickly discovered we were basically the same person, living in separate countries, in two bodies. Our passions, drives, likes, the way we lived our lives...bang on with one another. It was creepily awesome! We forged an amazing friendship, though we had never actually met in person til almost a year later when I ran the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon.
When we saw each other for the first time, it was not unlike having a meeting with an old friend you knew your entire life. We click. He was someone who got me like I had never been gotten before. (And yes I am quoting Adam Levine).
After that meeting I decided Matt needed to join me at ISFP. It was always just a woman's perspective on the page and it needed something more. So I asked and he accepted. Since then we have grown..yeah...just a little bit. I believe we were at 800 or so when he joined and we have never looked back.
Now after yet ANOTHER meeting of the minds and yet one more race, the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in Vegas this past december, Matt & I got to meet in person another soul mate and third pea to the pod, Rachelle. She was one of us...that came across loud & clear online. But in person...it was SCREAMING at us and we knew we had to bring her on board at ISFP. She fits us like a glove and also gets us! We asked, she accepted.
So fast forward to right now. This is the story of Wendy, I See Fit People and how it all came to be. It started because I wanted to help not only myself but my friends. It grew to become something I had never dreamed of but I am now terribly grateful for. These past 2 years this wonderful group of people has helped both Matt & I through some horribly hard, sad times but you also celebrated the happy, life changing times as well. You all gave us the strength to go on and face another day when we felt like giving up. You had our backs and motivated US when we needed a kick in the ass. You are OUR constant reminder that we can do whatever we set our minds to.
We log in daily with a new found attitude to be better than the day before, to try new things, to go outside of our comfort zones. It is because of I See Fit People coupled with my drive to seek kickassedness that I am the person I am today. I AM changed. You helped me. We help each other. I wake each day and want to try new things...I want to do it all! I may not get everything scratched off my list, but I am going to give it a fighting chance!!! I also owe Matt more than I can ever repay him. For that I have to extend my sincerest THANK YOU...to everyone.
So this is where the story of girl meets boy meets another girl continues. You wanted to know our story..this is it! With each passing day we WILL continue to write in the book of I See Fit People. Every new day is a blank page and we plan on filling it up with AWESOMENESS!! I hope you are here with your pencils sharpened and ready to write a story of your own!!
