I grew up as an athlete. In the years between third grade and my senior year in high school, I played soccer, softball, volleyball and swam on a team. I swam for the longest time, counting both summers and in high school. I didn't swim in college, at least not competitively, and before 8 years ago, I loathed running.
While I was still smoking but had started initially to lose weight, I didn't have a gym membership. I wanted to start moving but it needed to be manageable. I was not at all keen on trying to run and I was far too big to start with running. For a solid year and a half, I walked for half an hour every single day.
I have always had a difficult time pacing myself, so I hit a plateau with the half hour of walking. Looking back, it would have upped the intensity to add ankle weights or even to find some hills to walk. I had some weight loss as a result of the walking but not as much as I wanted.
I walked in the rain, the snow, the heat, all conditions. More important than any weight loss was that I really enjoyed moving. I grew up being heavy, but I think think the thing that kept my weight from really ballooning was the activities in which I was involved. Walking reawakened that passion for me.
The kick-start, the fuel to the fire was running. I thought I would never say that about running but it turned out to be very true. It's a rare person who pays a sum of money to participate in a 26.2 mile race--rarer still the person who commits to running two in one year.
And therein lies the rub. I spent the first part of 2006 training for a marathon in Cincinnati, OH. I did quite well in that race, actually. I enjoyed it even though it was a tough course (quite hilly). I did two half marathons that year as well, one in June and one in August. I have trained for every race I've done on my own, without any training group. By the time I was supposed to be training for the Chicago Marathon in October, I was burnt out.
I was fortunate enough to have a gym membership by this point. Between working retail and getting pregnant with Jeremy, though, I rarely had the energy or time to visit. I always wanted to go, but I just wasn't physically able. I became a full-time stay at home mom the month before Jeremy was born. After he was born, so much of my time was spent taking care of him that I still didn't take advantage of my gym membership.
It wasn't until Bekah was born that I realized how much I was missing physical activity. I was able, to some extent, do some power walking with the kids when they were very small. I had tried doing some walking outside when I was pregnant with Bekah but it didn't go very far.
I remembered, after I had Bekah, that someone had once told me about Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home workouts. I thought it seemed way too easy, what with me being an accomplished marathon runner! Luckily, though, I had a healthy enough dose of reality and humility to know I had to start again from scratch.
For me, being healthy has never been about just eating well or just moving healthfully. It's had to be a careful combination of both. This is where the WW model of recording all that you consume in a day is so helpful. Yes, I may have worked out for an hour but that only earns me 5 activity points and the donut I ate costs 11. It was great that I worked out but it doesn't erase what I consumed.
Doing the workouts was great and I ended up losing 50 pounds in 19 months (starting in about May the year Bekah was born). I wasn't able to afford WW, but I used My Fitness Pal. The problem I've always had is that I have difficulty with estimating how many calories I've actually burned. I found that it was difficult even with the WW model of tracking.
After I lost that 50 pounds, I got pregnant with Doug. I attempted to keep working out but injured myself one day and then freaked out about hurting him. This hiatus of activity lasted until the middle of last year. I decided to start running again, which was great except that it was the hottest, most humid in recent memory. I would go out running at 10 PM and still feel as if I was running with a wet blanket over my head.
The other problem is that I have bad feet. I have to wear orthotics to correct an arch issue. I also have to spend a bit more money on good running shoes. Once the shoes get worn out, I start having issues with my back and it derails any efforts I've made. Lately, because I've been working out with so much intensity, I've gone through 2 1/2 pairs of running shoes over the past four or so months. At about $80 a pop, it's an expensive purchase but one that I don't mind making.
Really, I don't view exercising as a chore. It's one of the weird quirks of being my size and on a journey toward a smaller one. I will put activity where there shouldn't be. I'll convince the kids to walk to the park. I spent a few hours at Three Oaks the other day and I walked back and forth, parallel to the shore. I cherished the opportunity to walk uphill, in the sand, to take the kids to the bathroom. I actually love being active. It's fun for me. I like to see what my body can do, what limits it may or may not have.
If the voices in my head try to tell me I can't, I remind them that I've run 26.2 miles on three separate occasions. I trained for all three races, doing hundreds of miles of running in preparation, all on my own.
Mostly, I'm realizing the voices in my head are full of shit.
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