I have changed my lifestyle. Or perhaps a better description of my current status is I am changing my lifestyle. I, by nature, tend to be lazy. I was not a lazy child, I wasn't even a lazy teenager; however somewhere between high school and college I forgot that I liked being active. So after 7 years of being pretty sedentary, with occasional burst of activity, I decided enough was enough.
It took several months of "practice" for me. Some people decide to get healthy and they do this dramatic turn around. I planned that. That is NOT what happened for me. I decided to get healthy and it literally took me like 4 months of slowly adding different elements of healthy living to my life for me to get to a place where there was a marked difference between who I am (or who I am becoming) and who I was.
I started with adding some activity to my life. I started going to Zumba, then adding some walking, and maybe a fitness video. Then I upped my water and cut out (as much) soda. Then I added more fruits and veggies into my diet, then I cut out some processed food. It took a while- and I am no where near where I want to be, but I am closer now than I was months ago.
I say all this to say that one of the things I am learning through this journey is that sometimes you have to take things slowly, painstakingly slow at some points. I tried to make a dramatic change in my lifestyle and all I got was defeat. Only when I took things slowly did I start to make some headway.
I compare my fitness journey to my running (if you can call it that). I am the SLOWEST "runner" you have ever met. No really, I promise, I am. I use the term running loosely, but it is running none the less. I can power walk faster than I run, but power walking does not offer me the same benefits that running does so I run... at a whopping 13-14 min per mile. YUP- I'm THAT slow. But I have learned to EMBRACE it. I don't like to run with people, because I worry about slowing them down or about me running too fast and then not being able to finish my goal. I run by myself because I run for me.
It has taken a while to get here, and I still have a long ways to go, but it is the fact that progress is being made that matters; not how much progress.
So that being said it's time to go out and make some more progress... week 6 day 1 of C25k. Check it out if you're looking for a place to start.
