Integrity- you gotta have it!

I'm on steroids.

Now before you gasp and turn white, I'm not on the Marion Jones/Barry Bonds kind, but on a medically-prescribed kind to clear up this bronchitis once and for all. Oddly enough when I asked the doc if I could keep exercising, he said yes. He thought it would help. But that I shouldn't run outside for about a week. It's killing me too because the weather here is beautiful.

I watched an ESPN segment with my husband not long ago on Marion Jones and since I've been wanting to write about integrity in training for a while, I thought this gave me a better segway.

Jones was a professional. The best in her field. Untouched, remarkable, a winner. Her story calls into question the need to cheat the system when all you have to do is work a little harder. Integrity is a core value for Airmen. Something at the end of the day that really means something to a job well done, that means something to the American public. Our fitness standards have become more difficult, although I'd venture to say the standards have always been the same, it's just the administering of the standards is new.

Integrity means not cheating the system. Integrity means knowing that the rules apply to you and that you have the power to do better. Not meeting the standards once seems acceptable if you're testing for the first time, but once you know where you should be then it is up to you to get there. I promise you that you can do it. I've just passed the year mark for my workout routine. Integrity to me is not only doing it because the Air Force says I must, but doing it for me because I feel and look better at the end of the day. Integrity is a personal choice by all of us. It can't be forced upon us, it has to come from within. Ensure you're not just saying it's a core value, make it one!