Sunriiiiiise, sunset. And a secret identity.

Close your eyes. Envision a sunset. 

What words come to your mind? 

Beauty?

Colors? 

Serenity? 

Awe? 

DISTRUCTION?!? 

BITTER ENDING?!?

DOOM?!?!?!? !!!!!!!! ? 

Sorry to ruin the moment there. 

Why do we see only the beauty in the end of a day? Because we know a bright new tomorrow is coming. We know, because God created it that way. 

I've been saving this analogy for a while. I think I've saved it for a good post:  

Younger Elizabeth was überly quiet, painfully shy, and lacked confidence like no body's bidness (Yes, I said bidness). Although I still struggle with that, my confidence level is way up compared to back then. Some from the various mission trips I went on, a lot from having/surviving cancer, a whole lot from having to rebuild my health. Exercise builds confidence. It's a proven fact. 

I started as confidence lacking, over weight, can't run a half mile Elizabeth. Fast foward to healthy about to run her 2nd marathon (26.2 miles) doesn't care who she's annoying on Facebook with her running posts Elizabeth. 

I started as the new girl in the gym who didn't know what the heck she was doing, didn't make eye contact with anyone, and just tried to finish her workout without drawing attention to herself. 

Then I found the Fitfam on Twitter. Anonymous accounts where you could post your accomplishments and struggles and nobody cared because they were going through it too. A place for encouragement. A place to say what was on your mind about your health journey just so someone could see it and not judge you.

Here's where the secret identity comes in, and where you might think I'm crazy if you don't think so already: I made an anon account for myself. Didn't put my name on it. My profile picture was my bicep when I first started. All anyone knew about me was I was a cancer survivor and a runner. The only ones that I told in person I had it were my sisters and my dad because it felt weird to not tell anyone.

A year and a half later I have 2,226 unpaid (just so you know I'm not making it up) followers who listen to my rambling about running, eating, and progress reports. I couldn't decide if I should post my back progress picture to my personal Instagram and finally shatter the "anon" mindset, then I decided to go for it. The fact that nobody seemed to think anything bad about me posting it to Facebook and Insta, paired with being a personal trainer I felt it's unprofessional to have a secret identity. And I want to use the account as my official trainer twitter. I've eased into posting about fitness on Facebook and Intsa 24/7 almost. It probably gets annoying to you all, but now, more confident Elizabeth doesn't care (as much) and will post what she wants about fitness (within reason) and share with the world. 

The sun set on quiet, shy, sick Elizabeth. It was a chaotic sunset. But ended up being a beautiful sunrise on a more confident, healthy, and ready to tackle whatever God has for her next Elizabeth.