Good Pain

Remember a few months ago when I talked about all the excuses I had come up with to not exercise?
Well, I finally bit the bullet back at the beginning of August, and I started an eight week program to tone my abs and the rest of me, too. I didn't really expect to get back down to the size I was pre-pregnancy or anything, but I wanted to feel more confident in how I looked and not have to wiggle so much to pull my jeans up in the mornings.
Those first few weeks were brutal. It wasn't necessarily that the moves were hard. It was that they were working muscles and areas that hadn't been worked like that in a long time. Like, maybe since college?
Needless to say, I was hurting quite a bit.

Know what?
Some pain is good.
No. I wasn't enjoying it when I was living through it. And I took Tylenol every night for a while.
But, after a few weeks, the pain wasn't as bad. And, I was starting to see some results, too. 
Just like in other areas of our life, occasionally, we have to go through a bit of pain, but we can come out on the other side stronger. And I definitely feel stronger and better able to face life now that I pushed myself through those hard weeks. Some days, those excuses popped up, or I was embarrassed to have to do the program in front of my family (six-year-olds can go from super encouraging to rather critical quite quickly). But I did it anyway.
And now, I look more like this.
Worth it.
Have you ever pushed through a painful time in life and come out on the other side stronger and better for it?

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