Motivation in Motion: Her Inspirational Journey from Paralysis to Olympic Weightlifting

All you have to do is click the link at the top of today's show notes or head on over to the website gritgraceinspiration.com and get signed up today.

I want you to imagine waking up one day to find your entire world turned upside down.

And yet, the very challenge that has seemingly destroyed your life would end up becoming your greatest source of strength.

Today, I'm going to introduce you to Kim, a remarkable woman who has a journey from adversity to triumph that will leave you breathless and begging for more.

But as with most of the guests on this podcast, the most important thing that you need to know headed into today's episode is that you might be listening to Kim tell her story, but you must understand that this all relates right back to you.

Because no matter where you are in life, there's always a starting point.

You can always start right now to becoming stronger, more resilient, and ultimately unstoppable.

My friend, I can guarantee that this is the episode that you needed to hear right now.

Welcome to episode 358.

Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Malow, and you are listening to Great Grace and Inspiration.

Welcome back into another awesome interview here on Great Grace and Inspiration.

Today is certainly no exception.

Kim, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for having me, Kevin.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.

Well, it is an absolute honor, and I have been looking forward to this so much.

And Kim, you have you have such an amazing story, such an inspiring story.

And and I I guess the best place to always begin is kind of back at the beginning.

And and you can, you know, take it from where you want, but basically I know that a you know a big part of your story kind of begins around the year like 2008.

I'd love it if you just kind of give me, you know, the story surrounding kind of that time in your story.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And I can't believe it's you know that long ago.

That's coming up on 16 years in November because that's when it started.

Not that I want to go back though.

SPEAKER_02: No.

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: So I was I we had just moved country again.

I lived with my husband.

We were both journalists, we had three small kids, and we moved every four years from country to country, which is very exciting, never boring, but of course it's challenging also, especially when you drag along kids.

But we had arrived in Germany, which is my home country, and we lived in Berlin, had been living there for a year, and for the first time also in all our time together, I had a full-time job.

I was employed too, because we were both journalists, but my husband had got the assignments, and I started as a freelancer wherever we went.

So, you know, we were in my home country, I had a full-time job, three kids, we lived in a beautiful house, and it felt like, you know, that was it.

I had made it.

I had sort of fulfilled my dream.

Um, I'd always wanted to prove that you could have a family and a career as a woman, which when I was raised was not like, you know, a given at all.

I was raised in a, you know, like socially very conservative Germany, where the word career woman was an insult when I was a teenager.

And it was always like assumed that you had to choose either you had kids or you had a job.

And I would, you know, never want that and and and accept that.

And here I was, and I had both.

And I've I I felt like now I had made it.

And then from one day to the next, like literally, I was struck down, I was out of it all.

I it started by me seeing double.

I was picking up my kids from school, we were driving, and I was driving a car and I was seeing double, and I thought, oh my God, something's really wrong.

Now, this came on the heels of just you know, like a like a flu uh infection that I'd had a few days before.

But, you know, like any any mom of small kids would do, I was back on my feet right away.

And then there I was seeing double, and I knew this time I had to go to the doctors because, you know, that's no small thing, that's something happening in the brain.

And went to the doctors and then was sent straight to the hospital where I was to stay for six weeks because they had to do all kinds of checkups, they couldn't really find what it was, and on top of like the the weird eyes, after three weeks I was completely paralyzed from the hips downwards.

Uh no sensitivity whatsoever in my legs.

And that was just so scary.

That was so scary, especially because they, I mean, they thought it was something autoimmune, but they couldn't really name it because my symptoms were all over the place, and they love you know having that symptoms in those boxes.

So like the eyes would have been a Miller-Fischer syndrome, and the legs were like a Guillaume Barret syndrome.

And there I was in the middle of this, always having like students in white coats around my bed because that was such a weird case, which you know contributed also to me feeling a bit dehumanized, actually, because already you don't have any power in hospital.

You can't decide like anything, not when the light is on in your room, not when you're going to sleep, not when you're waking up, nothing at all.

When you can't walk, you can't even decide when you're going to have a shower or when you're going to the toilet.

And then on top of this, I was there sort of exposed like a study case to students once a week.

And I even said, Can you please, I don't really want this anymore?

And then they sort of always talked me into it, let's, you know, allow that one more time.

But my life had changed like from one day to the next.

From one day to the next, everything that I had taken for granted, taken as a given, it was gone.

I couldn't walk.

I couldn't look after my kids.

I couldn't go to work.

I couldn't do anything, basically.

That was really, really tough.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

You know, I always say it's it's crazy how everything in life can change in the blink of an eye.

SPEAKER_00: Ah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: Now, during this time, you went in scene double is what you know prompted you to go to the doctor.

And then you mentioned while there, you then basically became paralyzed from what the waist down?

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_02: How did that come on?

Was it something, did you just wake up and all of a sudden realized you couldn't feel your legs?

Or how did that happen?

SPEAKER_00: No, that was very gradual, actually.

You know, it was my immune system attacking my own nerves.

And it was mostly the sensitive nerves in my in my legs that it started like sort of gnawing away at.

And first it was just a weird feeling in my feet.

Like that's the thing with neurological conditions.

You always have sensations that you shouldn't have.

And my feet felt weird.

Then I realized that I couldn't properly uh flex my leg muscles, you know, it was like very, very slowly.

First, it was weird sensations, then it was like limitations, things I couldn't do.

And then at some point, I just had lost all control over my legs.

That it took about like, you know, I'd say like two weeks, first week, started after one week in hospital.

And that's also quite scary when you see yourself, you know, feel yourself getting worse every day.

And they treated me with all kinds of stuff, with how do you call this, cortisone and then immune globulins and and all sorts of things.

And because they like they were also a little bit desperate because they were not sure what was going on.

So when I felt the feeling come back in in my legs, we didn't really know what had helped because they had tried so many different things, could have been one or the other.

I'm glad, you know.

I just I was just happy to get better, but was still not very, very clear what was going on.

I could leave the hospital, I was in a wheelchair, I could sort of stand, but I was very wobbly, and it took me about six months to walk normally again.

And after I had left hospital, they then after a while decided that this was indeed a Guillain Barré, which is a syndrome that happens a lot to soldiers.

And when I look back now, you know, my fulfilling my dream and having a full-time job and three kids and all that, I think I was a bit stressed out actually.

I was soldiering along a little bit.

And uh I'm not gonna say this is what caused my illness, but it's it's just it somehow, you know, fits the description.

And I remember one day I was at home.

I still couldn't walk properly.

It was like an icy Berlin winter outside, and I saw a couple on the sidewalk.

They were walking along, and they both had such grumpy faces, they both looked so angry.

And I was sitting inside and I thought, how on earth can you be so angry when you can walk?

Come on.

You don't even know how lucky you are.

And this sudden insight when I thought these people have stayed with me ever since.

Every step I take today, I'm grateful and I know that it's a gift.

So looking back, it sounds so crazy, but I'm actually grateful for this experience.

It was very dark, it was very frightening, it was totally defeating you.

You know, I you I felt utterly helpless and powerless.

But now I know that it's taught me so much about life, how to look at life and and and how to enjoy what I'm given and be grateful for all the blessings, like you know, small blessings, they say.

There's for me, there's no small blessing.

Every everything that I can do today, I'm really grateful for.

And that makes it so much more enjoyable, you know?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

Now, during this time, what was even just the emotional toll on you as far as being a mom?

Because obviously you you weren't able to, you know, take the kids to school or or care for them like you had been.

How was that on you?

SPEAKER_00: It's very painful to have your kids come visit you and you're lying in a hospital bed.

It's just pure pain.

And but you can't show it, right?

You can't show your pain.

I I didn't want to show my pain.

I did I didn't want them to feel pained on, you know, on top of being uh so well, they weren't unbalanced, but sort of their routine, everything had gone away too.

I mean, they were still going to school, but it was not me, and they were still getting their dinners, but it was not me who made them.

So I I didn't want to show my pain, but I felt it like very badly.

And and you know, that's I remember uh my oldest son.

I mean, Berlin is a huge place.

My oldest son, he was 10 at the time and he was already traveling by himself to uh to school.

And one day, I mean, this was before smartphones also, or just at the onset, you know.

I think he had smartphones existed.

A lot of stuff in hospital would have been easier, probably.

Anyway, he sent me a text message and said, Can I come see you?

And then he took like, you know, public transport all across town just to come see me after school.

Even today, when I think of this, you know, I I I feel like tearing up because it was just so, so heart-wrenching, you know, to know that your kids are missing you.

There's also this other aspect.

When I get got home for Christmas, there was a tree, there were presents, there was food, and I hadn't done any of it.

So this feeling that so many moms have, and this is something I really want to tell all the women out there who feel that if they don't do everything, you know, nothing's going to work, that everything depends on us, every single thing, and that the world's sort of somehow gonna stop if we don't do what we have to do every single day.

And that moment taught me that yes, I was like out totally from one day to the next, but the world kept on turning and there was still Christmas, and we and we still came together and there were presents and there was food, even without me doing it.

And that's a big relief, actually, when you realize that you are not indispensable, that you can take time off.

We never do this when we, you know, like voluntarily, but learning that you know everything will still work okay if you're not there, I think it's really it's liberating and it's empowering because it gives you the strength to say sometimes, no, I can't do this.

This is just too much.

I need some time here to do something else or to do something for myself.

And I wish, I really wish to carry this message to all women out there who think that the world rests on their shoulders because it's a heavy load to carry.

And and I wish, you know, for them to get it, to get this insight without having having it demonstrated to them so brutally as it was to me.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

You your mindset and the way that you see life, it's really beautiful.

It's really powerful.

And the way that the way that you can see, looking back on it now, the blessings that you gained from such a terrible experience is it's really amazing.

I guess what my next question is, is after this six-month period, did you ever have symptoms like that come up again?

SPEAKER_00: Uh, not the same, but unfortunately, that was not the end of my autoimmune saga because well, after I I got more treatment after that.

I after six months I could walk again, but I still went into the hospital once a month to get infusions and everything.

But then after a year, I was told that yes, absolutely, this was a one-off, and I didn't need any treatment anymore, and I was now just a normal, healthy person.

And I I can't I can't describe how how how overjoyed I felt.

I called my husband on the phone and we both cried with joy and and I thought this is you know, this is a gift.

I've I'm not I'm not gonna waste it.

I'm going to, you know, live every day, every moment with my kids and enjoy every every bit of it.

And then a year, another year later, I felt my left hand going numb.

And this this thing that I say with neurological stuff, you feel stuff that you shouldn't be feeling.

So I knew that sensation wasn't right.

And I got more checkups.

And this time they said, Oh, yeah, this is different.

This is not the kind of immune attack that you had before.

This is an attack of your system on the white matter in your nerves.

And, you know, this is MS.

This is multiple sclerosis.

And you can imagine that I thought this was like a really low blow.

Because I had just overcome this other thing, which was really kind of traumatizing.

And I thought I was so, so happy, so relieved, so overjoyed to have left that behind me.

And then I said, oh no, you know, go back to square one.

And by the way, this time it's worse, and this time it's not a one-off, this time it's for life.

So the darkness that I had felt for the first time, it came back.

It came back and it was even scarier.

But I had learned certain sort of approaches and attitudes, and and I think they got me through this.

I didn't allow myself to look at the future, at the big picture.

I didn't.

It was too scary.

I really focused on what I could do in the moment.

I had to accept lifelong treatment after a fight with my doctor, because that's what they give you for multiple sclerosis.

But I had just this hand thing that was numb.

The rest had been stopped then by an infusion.

And I could walk, I could move, and I just decided that I was going to just live every single day like this, the way I felt, thinking that I was okay, and not scare myself with thoughts of the future.

And I think that helped me tremendously.

I think when you have a diagnosis like this and you start imagining what's going to happen, even in two weeks or in two years or in 20 years, you can be so paralyzed with the uncertainty of it that you will forget, you know, to live your life.

And I decided, no, I'm going to just live every day because right now I'm okay and I'm going to make the most of that.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

So in this journey, this medical journey that we're on, where does exercise and in lifting weights, how does that even enter the picture?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

It's it's quite interesting.

I mean, I had been a gym goer before all that happened, but I went to the gym like most women did, you know, like with this idea of achieving a certain body shape or staying fit in a very general way.

And after my MS diagnosis, I felt this desire to go back to the gym, first of all, and then to go there to become strong.

Like I wanted to become insanely strong, physically strong.

And I think this came from feeling so powerless when I was in hospital.

And I came from wanting to make the most of what I had in the moment.

I, as I said, I could walk, I could move.

I I had just, I mean, my left hand is numb to this day, but that's about it.

And I really felt this need to be strong, also to be able to trust my body again, to count on my body again.

Because with autoimmune diseases, there's this, there's a bit of a feeling of betrayal that you can't trust your body.

It's doing, you know, like stupid things.

Why, you know, it's supposed to protect you, not to attack itself.

I mean, this is with hindsight.

I just felt this need.

I wanted to go to the gym and become like really strong.

And this is how I sort of explain where this might have come from, this desire.

But it's what I did.

And I bought a book, one of the first books out there, I think it was from the late 90s, one of the first that said women, you know, should lift heavy and uh because it's just as important for them as for anybody else.

And I followed that book, the workouts, the instructions for proper form, everything to a T.

And I got so much better.

It's hard to I you can you can't overstate how much better I got.

And I think it's because of something that we know now.

We have science on this now, but this was like 10 years ago where this was still all sort of evolving.

Strength training is like an elixir for your mental health.

You could you walk out of there and you have a you feel positive, you feel good about yourself, you feel good about everything, you feel good about what you can do.

And I think this helped me get better like spectacularly.

And even, you know, my neurological checkups, they took like two minutes.

You know, I you know, I had to check in every six months with a neurologist, and they saw me the way I walked in there, and they knew that I was just fine.

So much so that we m, I know, we moved again between all these things.

The first episode was in Berlin, the multiple sclerosis diagnosis was in France, and then we moved to Spain, where we live now.

And after three years of watching me thrive, I really must say it like this.

My Spanish neurologist said, Well, you know, if you want to, you can stop your treatment.

And I did.

And that was like seven years ago.

I have been without uh relapse and without treatment for seven years.

And that's also when I felt, even though I, you know, I'm not claiming you can cure MS with strength training, but I felt that was this approach that I had used instinctively, I was on to something.

There was, you know, the benefits were like so incredible for, you know, for overall health, for mental health.

And it had gotten me back to living a normal life without having to inject myself three times a week.

And that's when I got the courage up to fulfill something that I'd been dreaming about for a while, which was like sleeve journalism, become a health coach, and you know, shout it from the rooftops.

If you want to be happy and healthy, just go strength training, and most things will take care of themselves.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wow.

So in this kind of fitness journey, and you talk about the just profound impact that it had on you, were your doctors surprised at this?

SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.

I mean, the very first one who gave me the diagnosis, when I asked him about exercise, he told me to be careful.

And I don't know what he meant by that, actually.

And I think it was a way of saying, I have, I don't really have an idea of what you're talking about, but I don't want to take any responsibility.

So I'm gonna just scare you a little bit by telling you to be careful, and then, you know, for the rest of that, you're on your own.

And then the next guy who was looking after me was this was this Spaniard who is also a bit of an expert in in MS here in Spain.

And when I told him that I was actually that I had started.

At weightlifting, because over my journey from normal lifting in the gym, I switched to Olympic weightlifting, which is something totally different again.

You know, it's just it's this sport where there's just two movements of putting the barbell over your head.

And it's I got it got me totally hooked because it's so much fun and very technical and challenging.

And when I told him that I was doing that sport, he was amazed and he thought that's fantastic.

And he also told me you could be an inspiration to so many people, so so many patients.

He said, please keep doing this.

This is great.

This is fantastic.

And I'm very grateful that I have met this guy.

We moved to Spain.

I looked for a neurologist, and I, you know, I went, I I Googled and I found him.

And um, yeah, he's he's super supportive.

And he he also gave me this idea of you know, sharing, spreading the word.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Okay.

So you mentioned one little detail that I think me and everybody else was like, wait, wait, wait, hold up.

Say what?

You weren't just like lifting, doing some little arm curls with the little 10-pound dumbbells.

You went on to Olympic, Olympic lifting?

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

Yes, it is a bit crazy.

But it's one of the best things I've ever done.

So, you know, I was training in a gym.

We had just gotten to Spain.

I was working with a personal trainer, and he was very, very glad to work with me because you know, most women still go to the gym to spend half an hour on the elliptical and and and sort of avoid anything that includes heavy metal.

So I I was working with him and he one day said, Would you like to try Olympic weightlifting?

I think he had just started himself somewhere to try just to try it out.

He was a guy who tried all sorts of things, you know, like rugby and kite surfing and what have you.

And then he was into Olympic weightlifting and said, Do you know what, do we want to try this?

And I said, Yeah, why not?

And my memory of this, this is the first thing I'm gonna share because that's really funny.

I had a memory of Olympic weightlifting because when I was a kid, I watched the Olympics with my dad.

And because I think Germany had weightlifters, that's why we watched it.

Otherwise, I don't see why we would have, you know, been there in front of the TV.

And my memory was of like really big, often like fat guys in weird, weird leotards, very like heavy and hairy, and like lifting insane amounts of weight over their head.

That's the memory I had.

And still I said, yeah, I'm gonna give it a try.

Why not?

Because I thought that was, you know, could be fun.

And I tried and I totally sucked at it because I can't begin to describe.

I I mean I could talk about this for hours, so you need to stop me.

But it's, you know, it's not only physical, it's also physics.

You have to outsmart gravity because you need to put the barbell overhead.

So to make it as uh light as possible, like you know, easy to lift as possible.

It has to be very close to your body, it has to be close to your center of gravity.

Otherwise, you know, just imagine holding a heavy weight like uh, you know, on an outstretched arm, far away from you or close to your body.

You can you know imagine how that feels.

It has to be close to your body, but in order to travel up, you know, with some speed and ease, it also needs to travel vertically.

It's really important, yeah, because that's the most efficient way of lifting it up.

But then your body isn't vertical, and especially because you need to bend your legs and and then straighten them to give the thing a push.

You know, it's not vertical at all.

So you have to find a way to sort of move the barbells close to your body as vertically as possible, and then give it a good shove overhead.

So it's it's challenging.

But I loved it because it's you know, it's more than just strength.

And it's also something I think I appreciated so much because you have to be totally in the moment.

You cannot think of anything else while you're doing it.

You need to focus 100% on this one movement that you're about to do.

And I think that's what hooked me, which and then it led me to joining a pure weightlifting club.

So I left the commercial gym, went to a weightlifting club after two weeks.

They asked me if I was if I wanted to compete.

And I said, What?

You know, I was 55 at the time.

And then I thought, yeah, what the hell?

You know, why not?

Yeah, okay.

I said I'm gonna compete.

And I'm pretty sure that in my 30s, I would never have said yes.

I would have thought, oh my god, just another sort of obligation, another stress factor, another thing to do, and then you know, nerve-wracking, and you could fail, and you know, but after everything I'd been through, I was just like, what the hell?

Yeah, let's have some fun and see how this goes.

And it's amazing.

It's so, you know, at the first competition I ever did, there was a regional meet, and I thought I was going to, I felt like crying all the time because not because I was sad, but uh the emotions were so strong of excitement, of nervousness, of fear, of what you know, wanting to go.

It was just so intense.

And that's something I mean, I don't I don't suggest that everybody start competing in Olympic weightlifting, but you know, looking for situations uh where you are challenged and where you're happy to rise to the challenge, especially when you're in your 40s or 50s, you would need to do that because it makes you feel so alive.

It really adds zest to life.

And and you have to learn how to fail also.

I mean, of course, you know, you can't you don't make every lift, and you have to learn how to fail.

And I think it's it's very beneficial.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

You you're amazing.

This is absolutely incredible.

The fact that the fact that you didn't just get into weightlifting, but but now you're doing in a club.

And so with the club, I assume then that means you got right into doing competitions.

SPEAKER_00: Yes, because that's a you know, it that's a competitive place.

It's it's a club for that.

And it's wonderful because it's like a family.

And I lift with guys who are 18, some are 25, others are in their 40s.

You know, nobody cares how old you are, and everybody's got their own challenges.

And the cool thing with weightlifting, the training is worked out in percentages.

So, you know, you're gonna go there, and the coach tells you to, you know, I don't know, do five series of snatches at 75% of your personal best.

So the relative intensity that you're training at is the same for everybody.

The guy who lifts, you know, 400 pounds, he works at 75% of his best.

And me, I lift 100 pounds and I work at 20, uh, 75% of my best.

So we're sort of in this together, and we and there's no, you know, like no snobism.

Nobody would ever say, oh, you, you know, you're an old woman and you only lift very little.

No, we know, you know, we know that we're doing the same.

SPEAKER_02: So so now you're the person in one of those goofy leotards that you talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

I mean, that's a bit of that's a bit of a downside.

I mean, they'd look much better these days than they looked then, because then I think they had like uh like their upper, their torso was some somehow naked.

I don't know what how why that was the case.

Or maybe they were like very low cut or something, no idea.

And and now it's not quite as bad.

Now it's uh they look a little bit better, but it's you know, nothing you want to really be seen anywhere else.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.

I love it.

Now, how old are you today?

I know you said you got started when you were 55.

SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'm 60 today, and in hang on, we're what?

Um yeah, in four days I'm turning 61.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.

Wow.

So here you are at almost 61 years old.

You are still in the gym, still lifting weights.

I mean, talk about an inspiration to others of what is possible.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.

And it's this is something I so want to shout it from the rooftops.

And I think this is why my story needs to be shared also, because I I mean I was unable to walk.

I had no legs, no functioning legs, functioning legs, and now I'm I'm competing in weightlifting.

So I know how I felt in the moment.

I didn't know at the time if I was ever going to walk again.

And I know there's so many people out there who have problems, and it could be just dodgy knees that make you think there's so many things you can't do, or a frozen shoulder, or a sore back, or whatever it is, or maybe you're carrying too much weight and you don't feel like you can move.

No matter where you are, you can always start doing something.

And this is also what my whole approach when I work with my clients now is based on that.

We, you know, we find the place where you can start.

Don't go looking for stuff on YouTube.

There's fantastic workouts there, but they are probably not made for you if you are in your 50s and you have high mileage knees and you haven't done exercise in a while.

If you find your sort of point of entry, as I also like to call it, the one that's right for you, no matter how low you might feel, there, this point of entry exists.

And then from there you can start getting stronger, building momentum, and like, you know, increasing your quality of life like manifold.

And you don't even need to go to a gym for that, uh, because that might be the second objection that comes up.

Like, I know I hate gyms, I don't want to go to the gym.

You don't have to, you can get stronger like in the comfort of your of your own home.

And that's what I do with my clients.

They start with literally 15 minutes a day at home in it.

You don't even have to get out of their pajamas to do that.

And we take it from there.

So wherever you are right now, if you feel that there's nothing you can do, you know, forget that thought.

There's something you can do right now.

And no matter how small, but it will be like the first building block of, you know, of your castle.

And, you know, even if it starts with a little pebble, you know, this is one step in the right direction, and you can always do something.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

Well, before I ask you more about what you're doing today, I want to ask you back when you got started lifting weights, and then even kind of up to today, what has been the response from your family, from your kids that mom is now competitive weightlifting?

SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I think they love it.

That was not even a uh that didn't take it, they didn't take a beat.

I don't know if you say it like this, or pause, think, oh my God, what's mom doing?

It's it was just, wow, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: It was not quite as I mean, that's my kids.

My husband, he had to sort of get a get used to the thought.

And I think there's um but it didn't I mean it didn't take him long or anything, and there was absolutely no resistance, which is really important because I know that many women get resistance from their environment when it comes to these things.

But this, you know, this cultural aspect that you're sort of talking about is really it's really important because it's physical strength is not part of the sort of virtue catalogue for for girls or women.

And I that's something I want to change too.

You know, we need to be strong, physically strong, if we want quality of life and you know, our own power, our independence until we're very old.

We just we need physical strength.

And even though it's not it's not our first thought, you know, how are we raised as girls?

I I don't know about young girls today, but in my generation it was like you, you know, you want to be pretty, you want to be smart, you want to be slim, but like, you know, you want to be muscular and strong was not really part of that.

And that's why it's so so hard to to adopt, to embrace that ideal or that that goal, but it's the one that's going to give you everything else that you desire.

So here I am spreading the message.

SPEAKER_02: Yes, look at you, you little trendsetter.

Now, such a powerful message.

I want to ask you kind of a a deep question.

Is do you ever deal with fear of if things come back?

SPEAKER_00: To be honest, not really.

It's a very weird thing.

And I've been thinking about this a lot, because I am acutely aware every day that all of this could end tomorrow.

I it's not, you know, and it's not we all have this rational knowledge in our head.

We know that tomorrow's not guaranteed, we could die in an accident, we could be, I don't know, in an earthquake or whatever.

But I'm not talking about this this sort of rational insight.

I really know in my bones from my experience that you know this can all end tomorrow.

It could anything could happen.

I could I could not be able to lift tomorrow.

That's just a fact.

That I and and I feel it in every fiber of my body.

But it doesn't make me afraid.

It makes me more determined to make today, you know, the best day it can possibly be, and to, you know, live everything that I can live today to the fullest.

So I don't I don't know if that's is there some denial in what I'm doing?

Maybe, maybe, but I'm not I'm I'm really totally aware that this is, you know, not a given forever, that this is actually a very fragile sort of uh state of of happiness and health.

But instead of sort of scaring me, it just gives me this determination to make the most of it right now.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

I um absolutely love that.

You know, it kind of goes back to the way in which we all can choose how we see the glass, whether half full or half empty, you know, and and if you have that choice to make and you're really wanting to make the most out of every day, why not choose to see it as half full?

You know?

And um, that's so powerful.

Now, today, what are you you doing?

Where can people learn more about what you're doing and and really just kind of stay plugged in with your world?

SPEAKER_00: Well, what you can do if you want to find out about what I uh what I do in my work with women, help them to become strong and and and lean, you can check out my website, which is with my name, Kimrah.com.

And there's also a free health and strength assessment on there that you can take, because remember that point of entry I was talking about, that will give you a very good idea of where you are at right now with your health and strength.

And when you fill that out, I can I'm sending you some pointers and tips on you know what you could do next to get started.

If you you know don't want to engage like that right away, you can just start, you can lurk a little bit on on Facebook with my name also, Kimra here, where I'm sharing lots of stuff, you know, info, uh helpful tips, and some of my weightlifting adventures too.

Same on Instagram, by the way.

No, just with my name, you can find me.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, amazing.

Well, I'll be sure that anybody interested, I'll be sure that all of that information links, all of it is in the show notes for easy access.

Tim, it's been a pleasure getting to to meet you today, to get to hear your story and more than just your story is getting to be enlightened by your your perspective on life.

I think you are one of those real life superheroes for the fact that for the fact that you see life differently in that you were faced with this this thing, and yet you chose to persevere.

You chose to keep going and look at where you are today.

It's such a beautiful story.

SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, listen, I have one final question and then I'll let you go.

But my final question is is for somebody listening today who maybe they're going through their own struggles, whether it's something physical, maybe mental, something that has them in a position in life, maybe back where you were during those six months, what would you say to them to give them a little bit of hope and encouragement?

SPEAKER_00: I want to say there's only one question that you want to ask yourself in order to get better and to feel better.

Do not ask, why is this happening?

Who is to blame?

How did this happen?

Or why is this happening to me?

Or don't even ask what's going to become of me.

Ask this one single question.

What can I do right now that will make me just a little bit better?

And there's always something that you're going to find, and that could be the smallest of things like listening to bird song, having a glass of water, calling a loved one, whatever it is.

But if you ask that one tiny question, what can I do right now?

That will get you on a path of doing something instead of pondering and fearing.

And it will create momentum and it will help you get out of the place you're in right now.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

You are absolutely incredible.

Thank you once again for being here.

SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.

You're such a lovely host.

And I I know that the feelings that I've been talking about, you know, all about them.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, for you listening today, I hope that you're smiling as big as I am, because this woman today, wow, she just brightened my day, and I hope she did yours as well.

If today's episode resonated with you, if it made you think of somebody who could use a little boost to their day, maybe consider sharing today's episode with them.

That would mean the world to me, and I know that it would mean the world to them.

Until next time, of course, I'm your host, Kevin Below, and this was another interview here on Thrift Race in Great.