I am kind of all over the place with thoughts as I sit down to write this post. So I may ramble, and I apologize if I do. I just like to get thoughts I have in black in white so they are real and not fleeting. I think that is what those of us that blog get from it, it is a way to make the ideas come to life, and therefore real. When you reserve your thoughts to the recesses of the mind, then they are too easy to forget or ignore.
So to kick off the ramble, I love billowy shirts. Well let me qualify that. I love billowy shirts that are size XL. See when I lost may way, I began to upsize my clothes again. Rather than digging my feet in and pulling back against the rope, I was drug up to the line ( a tug of war reference in case it isn't clear). But what finally made me dig in, made me fight was when it became obvious, evidenced by the fit of my XL shirts, that I was about to have to upsize again! That was the line in the sand I refused to be drug over. So now I am about a month and half in to eating better (not perfect yet but more on that later) and exercising regularly. Of all the things I could get the most excited about, none is greater than the realization that the XL shirt that was snug on you last month, now has a little bit of room between you and it! I love the fact that when I walk, it tickles my belly and chest hairs because it isn't sticking to me! It truly is the small things that keep me going
Another thing that just absolutely excites me is when I am walking somewhere, and it suddenly occurs to me that I am not schlumping along, but rather I am floating. Since I have given such importance to getting back to running form, I can't help but notice my leg muscles and others that are associated with walking are once again strong, and so each foot step often feels like I am walking on air. Another one of the things that made me dig my heel in was the fact that one day, I was going up the stairs at school WITHOUT MY BACKPACK and still got winded. Now, even with my back pack, I can get to the second floor flight of steps before I start to feel it, and when I reach the third floor, I am still breathing hard, but not panting anymore! (FYI, there are elevators, I just refuse to use them)
The final thing that has been on my mind this morning is the fact that I was doing something I had no idea I was doing until I was giving some advice to my friend who is thinking about starting a journey to healthy living. When he was trying to kind of hedge on when he was getting started, I told him the key to all of this is just break the seal on it. Don't think about it, don't analyze it, and don't defeat yourself by deciding your are going to work hard right from jump street and be fit in about a month or so. Just break the seal on it. Decide that today, I will go to the block I plan on walking myself into fitness, and maybe stroll to the corner and back to the car. What you did was just break the seal on the plan. Now once you do that and realize it ain't so bad, just add a little at a time. So anyway, back to why this is in this post. I had been doing that very thing, just hadn't put it into a concept yet. My school schedule and family schedule have been giving me fits as far as getting to the gym or the trail goes. I am now mostly doing afternoon workouts. The problem with that is I was using my caffeine high to have great morning workouts (coffee addict here) and afternoons still are when I begin to try to wind down for the day. So one day, I was trying to rationalize not going, and so I said look, just go to the gym, don't commit to killing a workout today, just show up and see what happens next. So I pulled into the parking lot of the gym on the way home, then got out and went and checked in. It wasn't 30 seconds, and I was strapping on my knee brace, tightening my laces and heading for my treadmill to kill a quick 2 miler! So from that day on, when I am trying to act like it would be ok to not go on a day I am supposed to, I just show up and let the rest happen. That was what happened this morning. I have a great deal of reading to do, and some catching up on some stuff I am not picking up on in negotiable instruments. I was starting to think "I should be a responsible student and stay home and get smart." But instead, I got up, put on my gym clothes, and just showed up at the gym. Quite frankly, I cannot tell you how glad I am I did that. It was a great run that showed me how much stronger I am getting already and really set the tone for my attitude for the rest of the day!
Ok, glad I was able to get all that out. Now for the responsible student in me to get to reading! Thanks for dropping by and listen to me ramble!
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