I have a standing date every Tuesday night – with my remote, my kleenex and TV’s toughest trainers.  I know I’m not the only viewer glued to my couch, cringing as Jillian screams at the pukers or choking back tears as contestants tell their stories.  For me, it’s not just entertainment -  this is a TV show that teaches and educates and inspires people on the very thing I am most passionate about.   Despite my annoyances with the product placement (ENOUGH on the Ziploc bags) and the small fact that the amount of weights they are losing aren’t *exactly* realistic for the AVerage At Home Joe (a conversation for another day), each episode packs a solid punch of life lessons.

Are you watching season 9?  The first night the contestants, no longer averaging in the high 200s, but now weighing in at 300, 400 and 500+ pounds, walked on to the ranch and were immediately pu ton a bicycle.  They were told they had to bike 26.2 miles, or run the risk of going home.

Now let’s think about this.  If you’re weighing in the 300-400’s, chance are the first thing that crosses your mind when you hear this challenge is “I. Can’t. Do. This.”  No way, no how, right?

To have found oneself in such an unhealthy and scary state, I think it’s safe to assume “I can’t do this” is a common refrain.

But going home?  To these contestants, desperate for the chance to save their lives on the ranch, that is an even scarier prospect than what 26.2 miles on a bike might feel like.  So they pedal, they push, they scream, they sweat.  And they do it.  (With, ahem, medical staff standing nearby, donttrythisathome/doctorspermission,please.)

When the fear of not doing it becomes greater than the fear of doing it…. or, please allow me to reframe, when the desire to do it becomes greater than the desire to not do it… that is where the magic lies.  You can do it.  These contestants, in their first two hours on the campus, became blazingly, stunningly aware that their bodies could do more than their mind permitted them to believe.

Yours. Can. Too.