Hey there!
Last summer I shared this story about my friend and client Michelle.
Can’t believe it’s been almost a year since she graduated as an RCMP officer!
She’s now a constable serving a community in the greater Vancouver area.
Just wanted to re-share this story with you.
It’s probably one of the most personally meaningful blogs I’ve ever written…
This is Michelle.
Her journey is an amazing one, and I’d like to share it with you here.
Michelle was one of my first personal training clients, and over the years, she’s become a great friend of mine too.
Almost 4 years ago, when I was just starting my fitness business full-time after leaving my corporate job, I was looking for someone who I could take on for free, as a personal training client, for 3 months, 3 days a week.
At the time, Michelle had been an acquaintance of mine through Girl Guides, and she also had a house cleaning business, and I was one of her customers.
Because I had just quit my full-time job, I was going to have to break the news to Michelle that I couldn’t use her services any longer. But then I got to thinking…
Wouldn’t Michelle be the perfect someone to offer my free services to?
I knew that Michelle had been in pretty good shape once upon a time, but that with 3 kids to focus on, she had ended up putting herself last on her priority list, gained quite a bit of weight, and was suffering with lower back pain.
So I pitched her my idea… Well, sort of.
Not wanting to seem presumptuous, like I thought she needed my services, I asked her if she would know anyone who would be interested in what I wanted to offer. Lucky for me, she jumped on it 🙂
So, this is where we began, in October 2012.
Michelle confessed to me that she was in a total rut. She wanted to start running again, something she’d done before kids, and she wanted to lose some weight and just feel good about herself again.
When we sat down and talked about how she got to this point, her emotions poured out.
And when I weighed her, she didn’t even want to know what the scale had to say (she still doesn’t know). She knew she’d been neglecting herself, and she said she was willing to do whatever I asked of her over the next 3 months.
I soon discovered that this woman was serious.
To get her to meet her first goal of running 5K by February, we started with walking 2 minutes and running 1 minute.
And she also quickly and eagerly began transforming her eating habits: Saturdays would be the only day she’d eat any “treat” foods that she absolutely craved, like potato chips, chocolate, and wine.
Soon, she was running more than walking, making great progress in her strength, and and discovering that she enjoyed eating all kinds of healthy foods. And her weight began to drop consistently over the weeks.
By February 2013, she had lost 16lbs and she ran her first 5K in well over a decade.
After her 5K, our agreed 3 months was up, but we both wanted to keep moving forward.
So I continued to train Michelle, and in exchange, she began cleaning my house again 🙂 A definite win-win situation.
Michelle went on to complete a 10K, and then a half marathon.
The last time she weighed in was about 10 months after we began working together, and she’d lost a total of 54lbs.
But more importantly, I’d seen her self-confidence improve exponentially, and she was glowing with a new found energy and pride.
She was a woman on a mission and she continued to be dedicated and disciplined when it came to her fitness and well-being. The pay off was that she was feeling better than she had in years. No more back pain, tonnes more energy, and an excitement for her life that was inspiring.Over the next months, we continued running together and she admitted to me that she wanted to apply to become an RCMP officer.
Despite being 46 years old at the time, she had a new found self-confidence and a belief in herself that she wanted to tap into and use. She knew, after all she had just done, that anything was possible. So, she applied.
The application process took months: Fitness challenges, psychological exams, lie detector tests, head to toe physical evaluations, …
Waiting to find out what direction her life was about to take was emotionally tough: Everything was up in the air.
Finally in January of this year she got the thumbs up from the RCMP training academy: She had been accepted!
In early February, she shipped out to Depot in Regina Saskatchewan, for a six month intensive and rigorous officer training program.
She knew the training would be physically and mentally exhausting, and that she could be sent home at any time for failing to successfully complete the constant tests and challenges.
But she’d already been through some tough stuff over the past 3 years and she knew deep down she could do this.
The hardest part, however, was emotional. She was leaving behind her husband (an RCMP officer), her three kids ranging in age from 10 to 16, and her network of friends.
To say her first 3 weeks at the academy were emotionally wrenching is an understatement. She wasn’t sure if she could really stick it out.
But with encouragement from the home front, she persevered.
At Depot she learned to take orders, study for exams, iron bed sheets, live in a small space with about 30 other troop mates, shoot a gun, drive and expertly manoeuvre a police cruiser, survive and even function after being pepper sprayed and tear gassed, march in unison with her troop,…
She did things she never would never have even dared to imagine just 3 years ago.
But she dared now. She grabbed hold of a dream, acted on it, and made it real.
And on August 1st of this past week, Michelle become one of only 4 women in her troop of 29 to become an official officer of the RCMP, and I was fortunate enough to witness the ceremony first hand.
This is a phenomenal achievement for anyone, let alone a 47 year-old mother of 3 who was overweight and out of shape just a few short years ago.
It was so incredibly exciting and moving for me to see her accept her diploma and then her badge, dressed in her red Mountie jacket and uniform.
Wow!
Michelle now knows she’ll be stationed in B.C., close to where she grew up, but far from here.
Although I’m sad to see her go, because she’s a dear friend and we’ve been through so much these past years, I’m so excited for her to continue this journey that she began, and to hear the stories that she’ll continue to tell with typical Michelle humour.
I share this story to honour my friend, Michelle, but I also share it so that it may inspire you to do what you’ve been putting off doing. The reality is that time is moving on, it’s not going to wait for you.
So seize the opportunities as they come, or create the opportunities you’ve been dreaming of . Decide to do it.
There is no more perfect moment to begin than now.
So, thanks Michelle, for the inspiration and all you’ve taught me. Thanks too, for the laughter and fun you continue to bring to my life.
Keep moving forward along this awesome path that you’ve created, my friend.
Debbie
What a fantastic story Debbie (and Michelle). Amazing what friendship and shared determination can achieve. Congratulations to both of you!