Let it begin...

Welcome to the first post of the rest of my life!

Who am I?

Well, long story short, I’m a once fit and lean girl who through a combination of many things, including meeting a man who nurtures with food, giving up smoking and having a child, is now far from fit and lean.

But all that’s going to change. I’ve been unhappy with my shape for quite some time, but too daunted and depressed about the fact I let it get so bad to find the motivation to change it, until earlier this year when I got some bad health news. Nothing drastic, but it was confirmation that my weight wasn’t just damaging my looks, but also my health. It was a real, tangible result of my being overweight, other than the fact my clothes had shrunk.

I decided to get fit and healthy, and take a long hard look at WHY I did what I do.

Then I heard these words:

“We don’t take care of anything we don’t love.”

After that, everything just kind of clicked. I stopped hating my body, because it wasn’t its fault I was unhealthy, it was mine. And then I stopped hating myself, because, well, I have to live with me, and it’d be nice if we could get along.

I decided to take care of myself, inside and out.

So far, I’ve been pretty good: I’ve got the diet sorted, although I still have the odd day where I let myself have those foods I think life isn’t worth living without, but I make up for them with an extra workout.

I’ve discovered Zumba, which is a God-send for a girl who would rather open a vein than spend 30 mindless minutes on a treadmill. It’s fun, loud, energetic and gets me sweating! Kind of like another favourite activity of mine come to think of it... ;)

Along with this, I’ve made time for myself. I’ll take the dogs for a walk at the park or the beach, I’ll get a massage, I’ll go for a bushwalk, I’ll paint my nails.

So far, I’ve lost about 7 kilos in 2 months (I didn’t actually weight myself in the beginning, but it’s an educated guess.) It’s enough that people are starting to notice, and I’m starting to feel and see the difference.

So now, my motivation is up because I can see results and I’ve decided to work in with my natural goal-setting nature and competitiveness and do the Couch to 5K program.

Why? Well, I’m not so much a people person or a “team player”, I prefer to do things on my own, and as well as working on losing weight, I also want to be fit, cardio-vascular wise. I don’t like the concept of being a “jogger” – I want to be a runner. Jogging feels like a half-assed, pissing around kind of way of not running. So running. Me. Me running. I’m also kind of a stress-head, and I have a feeling running is cheaper than therapy.

Couch to 5K it is then.

I first heard of the Couch to 5K program when my friend and fellow blogger Sharnanigans did it to raise money for The Afghan Women’s Writing Project.

When I was looking for a challenge, it was the first to pop into my head, so I looked around online and found a heap of great sites, then I set a start date, the start of the next week, which of course, is today!

I decided to use my usual dog park, because it’s lovely and green, with trees and a river, a concrete path and very little people in the middle of the day. Plus I could take my dog. He’s very helpful, I clipped my car keys to his collar and he held his own leash and off we went.

I couldn’t remember the kind of fussy details in the “official” programme, so I decided to do a bastardised version. I walked for 5 mins or so, ran for two minutes, walked til I could breathe, ran til I thought I was having a heart-attack, walked til I thought I may live... and so on, you get the drift.

I decided three things:

I shouldn’t have made Day 1 the same day I do a Zumba class.

I REALLY wish I’d remembered my water bottle.

I can DO THIS.

Coming into this challenge I set for myself, I was already making my own excuses: My knee won’t hold up (I was hit by a car when I was 14, my right leg and hips have been dodgy ever since), I always get cramps ... I used to get cramps in my calf muscles all the time, but not today! I did get a stitch, but walked it out. My shin hurt a little bit when I ran, but nothing major.

All in all, yes, I’m pretty unfit compared to a lot of people, but I bet there’s a truckload of people (even ones who are all skinny and lean), who couldn’t do this, but I CAN!!

Stay tuned, people.