Exercise. It used to be one of my absolute favourite things. But I didn’t “exercise” or “work-out”, no. I danced or swam or skied; I enjoyed gym class. When I got sick, I couldn’t do any of these. At various points when I’ve felt good, I would try them again. The problem was that I would assume that my body would be able to handle the same amount of insensity as before.
However, I’ve been fairly inactive for about 2 1/2 years now. It is dreadfully hard for me to type that. I guess I’ve gotten into patterns, most of which involve a couch. At points, a good day was one where I went to school (at all), but the second I got home, I’d crash. TV. That was about it. My body simply couldn’t handle anything more.
But that’s not now. Now, I have energy. Not an abundant amount, but enough. I can bake. I can stay up a little late and not be a zombie for a week. I can walk to and from school. I just want to be active now. No more being out of breath going up 3 flights of stairs. No more dizziness from too much exercise. No more sitting at home while everyone else does a fun activity. No more.
So there you have it. I’m a positive person, but sometimes you just have to state the facts. Exercise and me have not been best friends lately, but I really wish we could. We’re going to start slow though.
Very.
Very.
Very.
S.
L.
O.
W.
Yeah. As much as I hate to say it, I have to ease in to this. I cannot over-do anything. If I do, it will end badly, and I’ll be back at square one. Or rather, a week on the couch. I’m not even joking. I went on a little hike a couple of months ago, and I was sick for an entire week. Sure, I probably also had a cold or something, but I was out of school for 5 days.
As Confucius said “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” Sometimes it can seem pointless to do anything when you don’t see any progress. So I just have to keep going, in a slow progression in order to allow my body to grow and adapt to this new schedule.
Anyways, this is the plan. I am going to do some exercise everyday. I’ll start with stretching and 5 minutes of real exercise and a cool down. See? I’m starting small.
I have to. Once I don’t lose my breath after 5 minutes, I’ll move to 10, then 15, then 20. I know at a certain point I will get out of breath anyways, but it will be a good out of breath, and I’ll continue to grow the length from then, at that point, I’ll probably alternate days of cardio with other activities. This is my plan.
In order to keep me on track, I’ve joined the
Ten in 10 challenge, also known as
10 weeks to Healthy in 2010. Its a starting point to get me going and make me accountable to someone, or lots of people (also why I’m telling you)! I’m not going to be doing a big diet overhaul, because weight is
definitely not an issue. I might lessen up on the sweets, but that might just mean bringing more to school, rather than taking away from here. Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t be posting some healthier things too =D.
Also, I’m not going to bombard you with updates on this. I’ll just track where I’m at now and then (maybe on those healthy food posts?). But I will tell you all the exciting stuff of course!!
Lastly, even though #10in10 (as its called on twitter) begins on January 1st, I am going to start now. In fact I started yesterday =D. Winter Break means I have time. Time to bake, time to cook, and time to exercise.
So there you go. I am going to do this, and I have. Once my 5 minutes grows to twenty, I will look at some programs – I have a boatload of DVDs, books, equipment. This is the return of stamina. This is exactly what I need.
xoxo
Lauren
PS – If you’re interested in joining the Ten in 10 challenge – for any reason – visit this post and talk to Lori!
Twitter and Facebook.
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