About me

<--- See that right there? That's my life motto that I like to live and uphold everyday.

My name is Leala, and this is my fitness blog, Little Miss Strong! To be quite honest, when I was younger, I had absolutely no interest in sports or fitness. I loved reading and going to school...I think walking my dog and doing three-legged races was the extent of my exercise realm.


But then something happened!

I started experimenting with different sports...in middle school I ran cross country. For two days. I ended up with shin splints and no interest. After that it was lacrosse...pretty awkward if you can't hold the ball in the net. And then for some reason, sports and training became my life. I started to develop this thing called determination. Ever heard that quote "If you want me to do something, tell me I can't do it"? I was told by a lot of people that I couldn't do it while developing into an athlete. Coaches didn't really take me seriously because I didn't have any prior skill to prove.

Suddenly training became a deep down passion of mine. I was in my school gym one day, and decided to lift some heavy weights. It was me, and the entire football team packed into one room. All of the girls were outside in the hall doing crunches and lunges on mats shooting me glares. They were talking about how I was pretending to lift to attract the boys' attention, while I was by the lifting rack with chalk on my hands thinking "Girl, please. This isn't about getting a side glance from #25, this is about me back squatting twice his weight and being proud of it." That's when I realized. What's wrong with girls being strong? Why can't people cheer us on for being able to pick up twice our weight and put it back down?

I started out not knowing anything, and over the years learned as much as I could from every single practice, coach, book and hard core observation, in and out of the gym. I've gotten to work and train with amazing athletes, from nationally ranked sprinters to elite olympic weightlifters and avid CrossFit athletes. I got over the fact that I wasn't good enough, or fast enough, or strong enough before, and decided to actually do something about it. And the best way to change yourself and to make progress, is to step out of that comfort zone...push hard, and train.

There really isn't much to it. In order to be good and intense at what you do, you need to be dedicated and push hard. It is incredibly painful. It's incredibly uncomfortable. There are those nights when you have blood and chalk on your hands, and your friends get mad at you for rejecting their late night pizza and ice cream run idea. But that's how being strong is. I do CrossFit. I love to lift. Heavy. And overall, I believe that girls are, and should be incredibly strong. Yes, people have skewed perceptions of strength...I'm not talking about looking like a bodybuilder. Girls should know that its ok to be physically, and mentally strong, and there is beauty in strength. Hopefully you feel the same, and find the strength deep down to pick up a heavy barbell, despite surrounding remarks or confused stares. And above everything, know that if you want to do something, you can absolutely do it. Things won't happen without that word called determination. But do know, that if someone tells you that you can't do something...it gives you all the more reason to do it.