Lemons or Lemonade

No, I Did Not Fail on My Couch to 5k And This Will Show You Why

Have I failed or not at a goal I set a year ago? I was not able to complete what I set out to do in a year. So yes I did, and I am working at owning it. I think that has been what has been bothering me lately is coming to terms with that. I didn’t think it would bother me as much as it did but surprised it did. Yet I have also come to realize how big of a goal it really was. Scrolling through reels on Instagram

After a year of working toward this goal, I have been doing a bit of thinking. I have decided that while I am making progress, I want to try doing a bit more of a breakdown on forming a fitness habit in general. I have had the most luck on getting runs in on the weekend but that still leaves all that time during the week I am not doing fitness outside of my work. Since switching to the day shift it has been a struggle. If I am being completely honest it was a struggle before I switched as well. Now I have thought about getting up earlier to try but right now that feels like I am going to be setting myself up for failure as that would mean an early wake-up time and there are so many factors as to why that won’t work. Then scrolling through Instagram, I came across an idea that I think might work. The person had basically made it a goal to do something every day till his birthday which was running. I want to take the idea but for the work week make it a small step of doing some form of fitness for a small amount of time to prove to myself at first that I have the time and then go from there.

For 7 days straight I want to do something fitness related, and it also includes going for runs. I think it is doable, but I will have to get through all my reasons or rather excuses that I don’t. Now I can’t just count walking as I do that at work a lot and am trying to do something different. I am guessing at first, I will probably turn to YouTube. With that in mind I am also not discounting Yoga as the process will be good and holding the process can help core strength and such. If this turns out to be successful, I am also not discounting going further or for longer periods of time. But to start I am once again having to prove to myself that I have the time to do it and still get everything else done without upsetting everything or having to rebalance everything. The idea is that this small goal can grow and add up into a bigger goal that will help me more with running.

I am not giving up on my goal, in fact, this year I am hoping to get in on some of the actual races not just the ones on the Conqueror Challenge. But starting small and then proving to myself I have time and then going to the next step of maybe the gym after work will not only help my health but also help my overall goal of running a 5k without walking. I do not know how this will go but I will have to keep the goal on the front burner and fight to keep it important to me. Not sure how that is going to go as life can through curve balls at me often. Let’s be real I was just getting something going when I moved shifts and then got a puppy. But this should help and to be honest, the puppy helped too. Though it has been rough trying to develop these habits I am making small steps forward. To help with this I am wanting to try this to see if it gives larger strides to the development of this habit.

I hope that with all of this, I will have an easier time running that 5k. It feels that it is taking so long, so I was looking to push to feel like I am making more progress. I know other people out there have goals, and even putting the time in, it just takes forever to get to the goal. I am not sure how this will end up, but it should give me the extra encouragement as well as just some simple get up and go to keep pushing toward the main goal of running a 5k without stopping. Along the way, I may think of other things aside from becoming more aware of the things I am eating. I guess I have a hope that all these small things will add up to achieving not only the main goal but also other positive things. I have to admit that I have struggled to find encouragement to continue with this goal for a while, but this did give me some to keep going. So I am willing to take that and run with it to see if it leads not only to some more encouragement or maybe even the end goal.

Part of the idea is that I will just keep going when I make the 7 days in a row goal. Then it will be another 7 days. Then getting more specific, 7 days in a row of getting a run-in and then seeing where it goes from there. I may have to do a few attempts to get 7 days in a row straight and then throughout this, I am sure I will have to start over as I have said before life happens, but like I have also said I need something to keep this on the front burner and help stop the excuses that I keep coming up with to put it off or that I am too tired or busy. They are not true, but I know I am not the only one who comes up with these excuses. If people who are far more active than I am can find the time, then if this is as important as it feels to me, I can find the time as well. I have a feeling it is going to take a few attempts to make it 7 days in a row but my threshold for what I am considering working out during the week right now is insanely low.

I have made no secret of the fact that I struggle with keeping a workout regimen. I have had luck in the past, but it has always been a struggle for me. Even workout classes or having a person with me is a struggle. For more reasons than just the fact I am massively out of shape, I also for some reason when I am working out with someone get self-conscious. When I would do laps with an old co-worker of mine at a pool, I was self-conscious of how much I struggled and how much she didn’t. This is a rather new realization for me as I haven’t put a lot of thought process into comparing myself to others before. Mostly because I thought they were better than me. I also am aware that it is okay to struggle and while these things may be my struggle as well as other people there are also other people who I compare myself to that struggle as well. Struggles happen and one thing I have learned is that they are different and look different for everyone. Some of us struggle with the same thing yet we do not all have the same struggles.

This is going to take a few tries to get right. That fact, I have no doubt that I will be successful in the long run. At the same time, it will be a good challenge to get me on the right track as it is not going to be an easy thing to accomplish. I struggle with the fact I have made so little process in a year, but I am proud of myself for the progress that I have made. A win that I was not expecting has been being more conscious about not just my fitness but my overall health. And having the courage to act on that knowledge and just the courage to act on things that I might have just brushed aside before. I am not perfect, and this should be interesting to see if this even has the impact that I hope it does. Even if that fails miserably there will be an outcome and I am excited to see what that will be. How different it might be from what I am originally hoping it will be. You never know and along the way, I hope there are some other success stories that come from these struggles.

Keep Your Fire For Your Goals When It Is The Gloomy Time Of Year

Winter is a favorite time of year for many myself included yet can be hard on people who are building their fitness habits. The weather here where I live has drastically been changing recently. In the Pacific Northwest winter is a time for a lot of rain so running outside is not always possible for me. This has led me to sit and brainstorm ideas that will allow me to keep the habit going so that when the weather does allow, I am ready and rearing to put the time in to do the run/walk on the road. Some of the things that I came up with are things that I have done before but fallen out of habit in doing others are things you might think of first but due to circumstances won’t work for me. The last group is things I have not tried but am considering to help with the habit. I am also taking cost into consideration as that is a factor in some of this for me as well as space in my home. I am not someone who has a tone of space, but I also don’t live in a shoebox situation. The same can be said about money to put toward something I am not known for following through on.

Before any of that, I must be honest the change in weather and temperature is already putting the idea of slacking off in my head. It is harder even on nice days to get the mojo up to get changed to go outside. I talk about how I am working on that in another blog post though. I don’t know where you live but in winter there is a lot of wind and very cold rain. That is not fun to do anything let alone work on a fitness habit like running. Having a treadmill would be a helpful way to keep running at home during the bad weather or having a gym membership and using a treadmill there. I do not personally own a treadmill and must admit that I currently do not have the space to put one in. On the other hand, I am a member of a local gym, and I could start going after I get off work. I will have to think about it though because I am just beginning to work out getting everything done and finding a balance, which would change things again and throw me off.

A lot of people solve the problem of running in winter by just using a treadmill. There are those who will run in the snow and without a treadmill. I know people who do both but running in the snow just doesn’t appeal to me with trying to keep myself healthy. The price of treadmills even just a basic one can get pricey if you are on a tight budget. Thus, why the idea of a gym where I am not responsible for buying or maintaining it is so appealing. I am not the best at treadmill running though and have always found it easier to run on the road. Maybe that is an excellent reason to tat a gym, to give me the challenge that has proven very difficult in the past. It is not one that I will be trying soon though for scheduling reasons. So for the time being I will have to come up with a plan c as plan b with being in the gym for a while. The idea of a treadmill is a very tempting and promising one. Does anyone else ever wish they had a home gym sometimes? It would make coming up with excuses that much harder or unbelievable.

Fitness programs are something that I am very much considering. There are a lot out there from lots of different companies. A couple that I have heard of though never tried myself is Beach body, and the other is Insanity. Though the guy who developed the Insanity program I think works for Beach Body now. These are programs though that cost money and it often feels like to be successful with the program you must shell out a lot of money for everything. I am not made of money so that has always turned me off from trying them. Some others that I have heard of but never investigated are Ballet Beautiful, the literal only thing I know about this program is Natalie Portman worked with the developer of this program when training for a movie. Then there are the apps and all you have to do is put exercise or the type of workout that you want to do into the search bar and watch all the options come up. In these instances, to get access to what you want, you will more than likely end up with a recurring Payment. Heck, Chris Hemsworth got in on this.

One thing that I do like to use is free workout programs on YouTube. I know during the beginning of covid when everything was closed suddenly, a lot of people turned to YouTube to get workouts without forking out a lot of money for special programs. There is a wide and diverse amount on YouTube to choose from, but you do have to know what to search or you may end up with someone just filming themselves doing a workout. I have made that mistake before and though I tried to just follow the person on the screen even though it was not the fitness instructor, I will admit I got discouraged and stopped very quickly. The ones I have found on YouTube that I like the best are yoga and some Ballet for beginners. These worked for me, but they may not work for everyone. There are some others that I very much enjoy and do as well, but I cannot recall their name of them at the moment. The key thing in all of this that I have realized I need to do is make sure I am doing beginner or low impact. This is because I am owning how out of shape and unused to working out and know that it is my starting point and I have not moved far past that.

A combination of these things is probably going to be the best bet though because life gets in the way and that will keep it interesting. In past attempts at exercising, I have often favored a combination of YouTube videos or the gym and YouTube. I also know that I have talked on here about doing a combination of run walks and YouTube videos. I do not think there is a magic combination as not everything has worked for me every time. It has more been what am I feeling and then trial and error from there. Due to covid and other viruses going around, I must admit I have been hesitant to go back to a public gym. But I may try it if I work up the courage. People’s sweat is nasty many, and people are bad about whipping off equipment.

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I have found that it is completely okay and normal to try something and find not only did it not work but it was not for you. I have been or tried to be very open about this on here and of course, will continue to be. Cardio in general is not easy for me, I must put in a lot of conscious effort and often time need outside help to stay on it. Like a class or something, oh that is not a bad idea. I will have to investigate classes in my area. But even if you shell out money and find that thing is not for you talk to the instructor. They don’t want you to stop your fitness journey but they do understand that not every type of exercise is for everyone so they may be able to offer some advice. I know there are some types of fitness classes I will stay away from because they are not for me, and others that I am interested in joining or trying out.

The off months where you live can create havoc in a fitness routine no matter if you are a novice like me or an Olympic athlete. Having the tools in place to keep yourself successful and accountable is important. Knowing what is right for you and the right level you should be working at. For example, I am not advanced so the things I do are more for people just starting out. But also, not giving up and being willing to try some of the things I came up with during this brainstorming session. Let’s be real that is what it is and hopefully, it is going to help me further my goal. I think it will because the main thing is that I keep going and putting the effort into my cardio to see success.

Struggling To Keep Going On Goals And New Habits

Life has ways of throwing curve balls at you. Let me give you some personal examples. For several weekends now things have not gone as I had planned. First, I wasn’t feeling well and it ended up that I had Covid which put me out of the running for even walking for about a week. Now before I got covid I was working to start running through the week as well. The chest congestion that I have had since having covid has made that a thing that has had to be postponed as I was also feeling a bit of shortness of breath. This lasted another week and while I am all for being cautious and not pushing too hard with my health it still felt like a curve ball was being thrown to throw me off. Now I am going to be the first to admit I have had a lot of struggles with this goal, but with every new struggle that comes up, it is like I get even more determined to see it through. Or maybe I have only worn my new running shoes once since getting them due to these curve balls and issues that have arisen.

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The frustration level I have been feeling as I have faced these new struggles has fluctuated up and down. My struggles from having covid to schedule changes and other things have been frustrating to deal with let alone navigate. Since covid is the newest one, I have been feeling shortness of breath. Even though I am not covid positive and all other symptoms have gone has made me want to just go screw it and try, I know from experience that is a bad idea. When I tried something similar before, I had coughing fits and got worse. But Covid has not been the only frustration that I have been dealing with, for a while now I have been frustrated with myself for not utilizing my time better for both running and blogging. I guess just in general this has been a frustration. I also have been dealing with just flat-out annoyance that two years in I get covid for the first time, having managed to not pick it up till now.

To add to the frustration level I felt like I am also hiding because before I got covid I had just started to develop a routine for after I got off work. I had started to figure out how to start to chisel out the time when I got sick and was really pushing to keep it on the front burner not push it back. I am not someone who does change well which I am sure you know if you have read any previous blogs. That does not mean that I don’t keep trying, but it feels like my focus is getting pulled in multiple directions. Getting over covid and making sure I do not start ping-ponging it with my roommate has been one. Yet this shift change has moved everything that I would normally do before work to after work this has caused issues in how I feel like I am utilizing my time. The lack of utilization has caused me to be frustrated but I need to be giving myself grace as I navigate this. I mean owning that I am frustrated has been a start, now I just have to put action into it and set that action to turn into new habits. Oh, joy more work, having a full productive life I am realizing is a lot of work. Not just in the sense of being productive but making the choices every day in how and to do it. Setting the habits to do it, is a lot of work.

Getting back into something physical after a sickness makes me a little apprehensive but at the same time excited to get going and find progress again. As I have started walking with some distance in them, I have also been listening to my body to ensure I don’t do serious damage. You also have to remind yourself you are rebuilding the habit you were working on trying to maintain. Thus, I have been feeling for a while now that I fell off the bandwagon. I was just starting to figure out how to implement this into my life on this new schedule and then I got sick, so all attempts are only now being restarted to implement it. This feels a bit discouraging, and going into fall will be harder, so that will be an interesting challenge. Back to the topic at hand though navigating this apprehension but not letting anxiety or fears take control is something I think we all face and so far the best way I have found is just to do it. When you think of it make a point of going and getting the run/walk-in. Otherwise, it will get pushed to the back of your mind, the whole day will go by, and you will get frustrated or mad at yourself that you are not getting back out there. Now if time does not allow at the moment you think of it, maybe try putting a reminder on your phone or having a roommate remind you or ask about it as a way of reminding. I have used these techniques with other things I needed to redevelop habits for and found them to be successful, but a word of warning if you have someone remind you make sure it is someone who will not mind if you occasionally snap. I choose to have my sister be this person for that very reason. And yes I have snapped at her but we have had a lot of conversations about it. Both during the snap, and at other times. I am also someone who does the same for her and we have had the same conversations (more because she is better at communicating than me) for the same reasons.

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This period has been beyond frustrating, to say the least. I never had a disease that knocked me as flat as Covid did and at the worst possible time in my opinion as well. Navigating it while making sure to see and feel like I am making actual progress toward my goal has been rough and at times not felt like something I could do. But overall maintaining the goal, and putting the effort in to keep pushing for it has proven to be the most useful. Things like this happen to everyone, you throw one wrench in start getting it figured out then out of the blue a second wrench toward a goal comes and knocks everything further over than before. Or at the very least it will feel like everything got knocked down further than before wrench number two. You can’t minimize getting sick and do everything you can to stay healthy but sometimes it just happens.

I must admit that I am tired of all the disruption and want to get to the point where I can create a successful schedule with these habits. Is that just wishful thinking? I am not sure sometimes but mostly I do not think it is. I feel with all these curve balls I am back at ground zero for habit building but I do not know if that is a bad thing let alone if it is a true fact and not my self-doubt talking. This is still something that I really want to accomplish and as I said above sickness happens. It is something you can try to minimize but that may not always work and that is okay. Just do not let the habit you are building get pushed to the back burner. That is what I am dealing with slowly, I feel like glaciers melt faster sometimes. I am not giving up though, it just seems really overwhelming at the moment.

How One Change Can Cause Chaos Toward Achieving Goals

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Life can be funny sometimes; it throws all sorts of things at us and they can have a variety of impacts. From not an impact to taking a wrecking ball to your life and feeling of everything being shattered including what feels like the progress or movement toward goals. This could be an intentional choice or something you did not expect to happen at all. I unintentionally took a wrecking ball to a lot of aspects of my life recently by adopting a 6-month-old puppy. Doing this has felt like I turned my life on its head for a few weeks. I have been figuring out how to add things back in to not only feel like I have a bit of control but also balance. I must acknowledge though that in the end, the balance or normal that I find will not be the same one that was there before.

I must be honest that this effect on my life was not what I expected, so I got blindsided by how much work a puppy, let alone a dog, is. On a side note, though this has given me a lot of respect for new parents as I feel I may have gone through a fraction of what they deal with. A very small fraction at that. Back to the topic at hand, though, I felt like I had no control for the first few weeks, and everything was upended. This led to more than one mental breakdown with lots of tears. But slowly I have been finding a balance so to say. With that feeling, I can put the effort into this and other things that I am working toward. It is nowhere what it was but that is to be expected. This has been a process of relearning how to get things done, from chores around the house to putting time on things like fitness and this blog. But the upside is that I feel like I am gaining the motivation to take those things even further and put more effort into them.

Something else that I have struggled with, and I know that I am not alone in this is asking for help. Adding someone who needs so much attention into my life has forced me to rely on others to help me with things like chores. So, it has meant working with my roommate to redistribute who does what chores and when they do them. This has had a bigger impact on me than my roommate may know in having such a constant person I can feel comfortable saying ‘hey I need help getting this done.’ Which has always been harder than some might first think for me to say. As discussed before the upending forced me to have to start to change how I think but having that constant person who I feel safe and comfortable asking and having had to be forced to ask because it is impossible to do it all by myself now. That was a hard lesson to learn; no effort to force it would allow it to work that way. While I am not proficient at asking for help, I feel like the whole situation has forced me to get better at this. A sink or swim situation so to say.

Before I was able to ask for help or even consider it, I was overwhelmed by everything. The whole situation for a long while felt like I bit off more than I could chew. I had just started to see progress in my fitness goals, I am someone who may not own to liking a schedule but in some aspects of my life, I live by it. My family will own that changing it is a big deal for me. I had several mental breakdowns and owned that I would have them and still do though not as often. I felt it was important to have them and own that I was going to have them to not try to bottle feelings up. It never goes well when I try to do that. I did bottle things up for a long time and it never ended well. They always came out and normally at the worst possible moment for them to come out. Now by asking for help, and not trying to pretend I know everything about dogs I have been feeling a balance in my life again and have been making progress toward my goals again. The progress admittedly is still slow and maybe even a little slower than before but I also own that I am navigating new stuff, so I try to give myself grace. That is another thing this whole process has taught me as I continue to push for my goals while navigating all of this, give yourself grace.

This has also been another situation where I have had to fight to not let my goal. The easy route would have been to just place it on the back burner and that ends oh so well. It has been a struggle not to let this happen, but I feel I have been successful. Getting runs in when I can and being able to even share my experience with people here and on other social media platforms has been rough. I was just starting to get into the habit of sharing before I got my puppy. I just need to work on rebuilding the habit. That is taking a lot of conscious effort and again if I do not do it when I am thinking about it, I tend to forget and wish I had done it later. But I am also seeing the benefit of remembering and putting the effort in. It still feels weird and at times on here even though I am being very real with my experience I feel like I am complaining at times. But maybe that is just being real, that things are not all sunshine and rainbows.

The fact that I have been able to continue to make the progress as little as it is while navigating these different things is a victory in my eyes. I am someone who thinks we need to celebrate the small victories. With this mentality, I have also been motivated to continue on this journey and other ones like my languages. While I am still working on the actual habit of running, I was doing good before the new puppy. I feel that I took a few steps back after getting her but I have had victories getting back to focusing on these things. That is fuelling me to continue to push for being able to run a 5k even though I feel like I have even less time to devote to it. Though I am finding that I have more time than I think, that ever happen to anyone else? You think you are short on time but slowly you are finding you have time to do more than you think. I have also with this being able to see that there are other things that I need to work on even with the time.

Going forward in this goal and in general is going to be interesting because I very much feel like I have no idea what I am doing. Not just in how to push my goal but making sure I am giving all the time to all the areas that need my time. The actual running part is straightforward just progressing on the run walking I am increasing the running parts and then eventually phasing out the walking part. But the part of disciplining myself again with the habit is what I am currently working on is getting back into, if possible when I think of it do it. That was what was helping me the most to develop the habit and keep it off the back burner. Not making excuses and saying oh I will do it later or something like that.

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Adding things to life like new members to your family can cause pauses or setbacks in goals that you are working toward. But that does not mean that you should stop or let them fall to the back burner forever if at all. It is not easy, and it takes time to find a balance to be able to push forward on them. You may have to take a few steps back because of the laps, I know in my running and language ability I have. So, it is just going to take more hard work to push forward and surpass where I was and on toward the completion of my goals. I have seen women who are mothers find the balance and be able to do it. I hope that they struggle as much as I feel and I am only a pet parent but the fact that they do find success is encouraging. I am not worried about how they do it, for what works for them may not work for me. I will find my way on the how but the fact they can do it is the important thing to me.

Changes Derived from Goals can be Good or Bad

So I think I have talked about this topic before but not in detail, and that is that it is too easy to try to do too much too quickly when working toward achieving goals. Now I am aware there are people out there who will disagree with me on this but this is based on my own experiences. In that same thought though I know that I can not be the only person who has had this difficulty or gotten overwhelmed by this. Working toward a goal in health and fitness you start to notice all the other things around you that you need or feel like you should change. Now I have had both negative and positive experiences in regard to this. There have been many times in the past when I start on a journey and I get so excited or feel like I should also do all these other things then when I am not able to do them I got really discouraged. It has taken a long time to learn how to do these things differently, the positive experiences I have had are a small change here and a small change there. Even on days when I am not able to make that particular goal, I am not discouraged, and rather the positive effect that I had when I did reach that goal carries me through to try again.

As I have been reaching toward my goal to run 5k it has become more and more apparent again that I also have an unhealthy relationship with food. No new news there but making lasting changes in this has been a struggle for me. Now I do know that part of the problem is that I just flat out often eat too much which goes into psychological stuff that I do not have a degree to get into. What I do have though is my experiences with what I have tried, be it not very much. What has worked for me and what has not or just the outcome. It took a long time for me just to be able to own up that I like food. Now I know that is not a bad thing but when I would try restrictive meal plans I always wanted what I was not supposed to have. Which lead me to try intermittent fasting, this was something I did see success in the dropping of pounds. It is always nice to see lower numbers on the scale. What intermittent fasting did do that other plans did not was slowly made me aware of what I was putting in my body. During the height of the progress, I had with intermittent fasting the bad food choices I was making became clearer. I only had set hours to take food in and I was choosing to use those hours to put sugar and unhealthy things in my body. I fell off the bandwagon with intermittent fasting but a few of the parts of it stuck around. Such as not starting eating till around 11 am. The changes that stayed even though I do not do intermittent fasting anymore were so small and happened in a way that made them last, it wasn’t something that freaked me out. For example, it is getting to the point where I am missing my cool crunchy vegetables.

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Obviously changing what I eat different problems have arisen. These problems are not in relation to finding out about food or anything like that. In retrospect it actually seems quite simple, when I was making the change because I was hyped up from the success I was feeling toward the fitness goal I would get overwhelmed and that would be detrimental to both goals. When I was just doing a diet to lose weight as I have mentioned before I do not like restrictive diets and it took me a long time to understand that I just really like food and that was part of my problem with restrictive diets. That and little self-control, which I am working on. Now on the flip side when I have learned to actually listen to my body and what it wants in relation to food I have seen success in making changes and actually found a couple of new go-to items. As well as items that get rotated in and out, though they are bad for me they are also a guilty pleasure.

I do not know that I would go so far as to say there is a solution that I have found to my issues with making healthy food changes. At the same time I am finding if I listen to my body then it will me what it wants, and 9 times out of 10 it is healthy things that it wants. I am learning to be more successful with listening to my body because I often go for what is considered easy or a mixture of easy and what I am craving. Though that is not to say that I get it right or that it makes sense. A lot of trial and error is going into that part. I still have cravings for unhealthy foods the same as anyone else though. I do not know anyone who does not have cravings for what are considered sometimes foods so do not even try to convince me that you are someone like that. I have learned through a lot of time trying to suppress cravings and feeling like I am being told to stop having cravings that that does not work and personally I do not think is smart. I have found when I suppress a craving for a long period of time it just grows and then I end up pigging out on a lot of food that I should not eat. Learning when to stop eating is also something that I am working on but that is a different post.

For as long as I can remember for some reason the talk of change in my diet has always overwhelmed me and had me shy away from certain things. Now though while I do still struggle with these changes on top of maintaining fitness goals; I have made of point of reminding myself that as of right now dietary changes are not my focus. My focus has been working on running a 5k and because of that, I have seen my turning toward water just in general increase but more of an ability to slow down and check myself as to how food is affecting me. Thus not letting the idea of change cause fear, or overwhelm me to the point that I just stop. I know most experts would recommend making healthy food choices during this but I am going to be real every time I have had the focus on both for me it just doesn’t end well. Which has led to trying this one change or step at a time.

I know as I am making small steps of progress toward my goal of running a 5k there may be other changes that want to occur. I may have to figure out a way to make it work or if it is worth the struggle to integrate without getting off the rails and keep putting pressure on me to meet my goal. Pressure is not bad if it is the right kind and helps fuel your goals. I have had a positive experience with this before due to my stubbornness helping fuel the goal I am working toward. This is not just in reference to my current fitness goal but other goals in my life as well. I do not know if pressure is the word other people would use to describe the feeling of fuelling the desire to accomplish the goal. The reason I bring this up is this feels different than when changes happen and I get overwhelmed and discouraged. There is a passion when I feel like I am not letting something stop me rather than the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Changes are scary and can be overwhelming or add to an already overwhelmed feeling. Let alone feeling like I need to change in addition to reaching my fitness goal. Some changes can act as a seamless transition other changes will take a lot of work. I am not someone who deals with a lot of change well so it tends to go negative for me from my perspective at first. If I stick with it which is rare the change may stick around for a while but that is even not a guarantee. When it does stick around though and gets into a bit more of a habit-formed stage even if the habit does stick around long term the nagging feeling in the back of my mind does help to make a seamless transition into maybe a smaller change that I find more manageable or helps fuel me toward a goal that I have been working toward.

How To Know When and Where to Progress Your Goals

Aiming to complete a run in a certain amount of time is never something that I had thought I could do. When I was in middle school my P.E. teacher always told me I could have a faster mile if I would pace myself better. Now that made little sense to me because I have no idea at the time what pacing was. Though the same teacher gave me some advice on how to run better in that same conversation. These pointers would help me to an overall better mile time if I had any idea how to implement them. Now I could be completely wrong and my memory failing since I was never a big fan of P.E. class in school. So I took to Google to do some research to make sure I was on the right track. In addition to that, I have been doing some experimenting with what I have found on google to see how to apply it to my walking to get a better pace. My thighs though have not been happy with me when I am doing it. Hopefully, they will get over it quickly since I am hoping to move to focus on being able run soon.

I never actually realized before how easy for someone who is not into exercising but trying to develop good habits and reach fitness-related goals to get overwhelmed. I have had several fitness-related goals throughout my life and even though I am just barely making progress with this one I feel like it is further than I made with any other goal in regard to fitness that I have ever had. I know that I cannot be the only one that this has happened in the past. Fitness just seems so overwhelming at times and while you should be able to see progress some progress takes time, I would guess it depends on the person where they are starting and how they are going about it. Learning how to implement pacing has been a challenge in this very sense, part of me is overwhelmed but also encouraged at the same time for different reasons.

Back to the topic at hand, what is pacing and why should even be worried about it? Well according to Google it is the average time it takes to walk a mile or a kilometer. Okay, so my time than in walking a mile range around 24 minutes now yes, I would like to improve that and through some work. I have realized I can do bursts of faster speed where I am which is considered speed walking. My thighs when I do this tend to start screaming at me for some reason and then I slow down to make them not hurt. Different times at work there have been the times when I have done this the most. I have never timed myself while doing this so I would imagine that is the next step in this. As I have never really worried about a time greater than a mile, the pacing is still odd. When I have walked further than a mile, I am never doing it for time or to improve time. To be honest, I am a bit nervous to try it, but it sounds like something I should try to better understand pacing.

What are my issues with pacing if the concept is so simple? Well to be honest it is not an issue but more that I have never felt like I could even worry about it because my only goal was just to finish the running not worrying about the time. Because I have been out of shape and not a great runner my whole life and only recently have really looked at running with more than disgust taking on the idea of trying to run to maintain a specific time is a very foreign concept to me. While I am someone who has been told I can or should focus on the time I have not been in a place in my fitness journey to worry too much about it. I guess though I am at the point in some ways that it is time to move past making it to the distance goal but after making that effort to make it in by a time. That still seems a long way away as I have currently started running but in a split x amount of minutes walking x amount of time running. When I say just started, I mean I have done one run like this, and it did go well but I think pacing while doing the walking portion might become beneficial.

Oh my gosh, my thighs are mad at me recently for trying to improve time when walking. So, when I have been walking in general, I have played with posture and pacing to see if I feel a difference a good or a bit painful difference, but I will take it. The difference that I have felt is not just in the working of more muscles from posture but also in taking some strain off other muscles because they are being supported by other muscles better. Again, remember this is in regard to walking and being able to hold the pace. I did have a situation recently where I did have to hold a fast-walking pace for work and while I couldn’t do it the whole time I did do better than I thought I would which I was impressed by. So as I have been asking myself should I be worried about pacing right now I have to say yes and no. Yes for walking because I need the challenge and it is good for my health as well ad my posture. Running on the other hand I am still at essentially ground zero so no, just getting out and doing it.

I have found that it also helps to go for walks with people who are naturally faster-paced than me, this has allowed me to push for a faster pace in a relaxed environment. I am not the best walking partner but hey everyone has their days. While I have done research on what appropriate pacing looks like in walking, having this external push I have found that it can be helpful. It forces me to push myself a little and while I may seem winded and unable to talk as normally I would that is actually not a bad thing. I will own up that I gripe about it a lot during the walk and believe me, there is griping, but I do see its benefits. I have no idea how to deal with this when I get to that point in running but I have a while to figure something out.

This does lead to a bit of a realization that as far as pacing when running, even though I know I am nowhere near ready to worry about it. I will know when I am ready to start seriously putting effort in. It seems to come to me naturally with walking so I have taken that to mean that when my body is not screaming in protest near as much at the simple thought of running and it takes longer for the stitch to come that I will know when to start putting effort into the pacing and not before. That of course is not going to stop me from being curious but putting any actual effort in has not been wise or needed. I feel like I also need to be cautious about trying too soon because that is a way to burn myself out of continuing to try running. I remember on previous workout-type goals I pushed too far too quickly and just gave it up. I will need to make sure I see the progress there to stay motivated and keep acknowledging where I truly am and what should be the main focus to not get overwhelmed by this concept.

While all of this can be a lot as well as overwhelming on the surface and something to be aware of in the back of your mind. But also, something that you may not yet be needing to worry about. There are also going to be days where you want to throw it to the wind and say, ‘screw it.’ I have not run into these days yet, but I am more than aware that they are coming. To gain improvement though for my health not just my goal it is a necessity, unfortunately. It also encourages more body awareness regarding my posture. Not something I am going to argue against as that is something I am always working on. Pacing though is a hurdle I am just starting to understand let alone figure out how to implement knowing that the benefits are going to be worth it in the end. As long as I do not try to do too much too quickly.

Owning That You Need to Reprioritize Your Goals

Well, it happened, I have joined the numerous amounts of people who fall off the New Year goal wagon. Pooh, that is frustrating. I know this happens to a lot of people including myself in the past with other goals, but that does not make it any less frustrating. How did this happen, well if you have been following for any length of time then you know I have struggled with distractions. When I say distractions, I am talking about life. Job responsibilities, appointments things like that. In addition to that just the mojo to do it. This caused my goal to get pushed further and further back until I realized one day that I have fallen, and I need to make some changes to get going on making my goal a reality. I had lost the drive to make my goal a reality for a while but that has changed, now I just need to keep this drive going.

Lack of motivation also started to play a factor, for several weeks now I have been feeling very lethargic. People who live in places that do not see much sun or suffer from seasonal depression may understand what I am talking about and may have also felt as I do. These factors played a strong role in pushing the goal to the back burner though they were not the only factors. So how can I keep motivated? Well, you guys here for one, the accountability to report back what I am doing has been a help. On that note another idea I came up with and started with these virtual races I am started the one for Hadrian’s wall and it has definitely helped motivate me. I will also be brainstorming some ideas on how to motivate myself because I am certain I am not the only one who lost the motivation to see a goal through. Maybe something as simple as a to-do list before work will help. I’m not sure, but if you have ideas, let me know what works for you when having to make sure you put the effort in that is needed to accomplish your goals.

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The aha moment when I realized all of this was when I was finishing up my last blog post. I looked at myself and realized I was not only nowhere near ready to put any type of walking training schedule in place. I needed to just put something in place to be doing some form of working out every day. I need to put more of a conscious effort into it, for me, that means when I think of it I need to do it. If I say I will do it later there is a 90% chance that it is not going to happen. My track record on that is not very good. For the time being, I am going with when I think of it or during this time period in the morning, I do the physical activity. Now it is not much, any trainers or fitness gurus out there would probably be shocked at how little. But it is a starting point that I have been encouraged to build from to prove to myself that I can do it each week and then add to it slowly. So that is what I’m doing with the hopes that I can add distance and I have started also working on walking pace.

Now that I have had the realization, what am I doing about it? Getting up, dusting myself off, and keep going. While it does make me feel a little discouraged that I am basically restarting it also makes me that much more determined. Like I said above I am starting with reforming the simple habit of working out. I am doing it in such a way so that I can prove to myself that yes, I have time to do this every day to not trigger anxiety about that. While I am doing that, I am also being aware I need to be putting more conscious effort in for the time being. That goes back to when I think of it do it while I am forming the habit so that I am also setting up a routine regarding it. I think that will help fight the anxiety about having enough time. In the future, this may also mean reworking some schedule aspects to fit in longer workouts if need be but that is then. I hope that I can moreover to a walking training schedule by the end of next week to start working on some other aspects like speed and such, but I don’t want to get away from myself with extra goals.

I don’t currently have a timeline for which I would like to transition from walking to running. But somewhere in the not-too-distant future is the hope. Getting this into a habit to me seems more important and then as I make each transition toward being able to run a 5k keeping the habit and the motivation for the habit seems the best way forward. While going backward and saying bag it seems easy, I don’t want to. I want to be able to do this for myself. Has anyone else had a goal like that, they just want to be able to do it there is not a huge reason why. That all in mind I have decided to try something with races maybe I have recently started an online one and it does seem to be helping a little in encouraging me to find the time. As I am thinking this year there may be more races that I will be able to do over weekends but we will have to see. It may take a few to see if that helps with the motivation. I am just thinking maybe something extrinsic now would help since I don’t have the discipline yet. I will get there but it is a massive struggle now.

Even if you don’t have a training timeline or schedule as you progress to either further distances or more time something I am realizing is to keep reminding yourself that you can do it. Allow the endorphins that are going to come out from the exercise to come out. Once I get to the point of exercising that is an easy thing, and often the endorphins are there. For some, they may find it harder if they have a lot of stuff on their mind during it. I have also had times like that and while the walk or workout is still enjoyable, I feel distracted or not the same after it. That is all if with the distracting thoughts I get to the workout as this is a new habit, I am struggling to build I feel like I am distracted easily.

Life is always going to get in the way, that is becoming glaringly obvious in so many ways. It will never stop but neither will I. This may take longer than I thought but that is okay, and I feel really optimistic right now, or at least that is how I am coming across. In truth, I am just feeling really determined even though my thighs are annoyed, and my back has been killing me for a week I feel really determined. That I think is what is going to push me through, holding on to the determination. That will see me through the days that feel like I have no time, no motivation, and whatever else may come. That and this sudden desire to prove people wrong, no idea who but I just want to prove people wrong. So yeah no idea where this one is going to lead, well I mean aside from being able to run a 5k but it seems like there will be a lot of other growth and achievements along the way.

Is a Training Schedule Really Important?

The answer to this is yes. They are important for multiple reasons but understanding what should be included and when to change it up may not be well understood. Though it is equally as important. Not really having a clue as to what it was before I started looking into it for my goal made this a rather daunting yet needed experience. What type of plan would I need? When should I move to a different harder one? Are there plans that will see me all the way to the end of my goal? Do I have answers to all of these no, do I have answers to some of them yes. Through what I have learned as I will explain in more detail Training schedules are not as scary as I first thought. They are important but they are also flexible for you to be able to succeed.

Training schedules like most plans can be altered as needed. Now the general idea is that you are not supposed to or going to need you, but life can demand some alterations. Like, say how teachers may need to alter their lesson plans or parents alter plans based on the needs of the kids. The internet I quickly have learned is full of different ones for any sport or activity that you could imagine. Then they go further, and people have posted them across the internet forever level of that activity. Which made it a little daunting at first looking through them. Taking the time to scroll through and not just trying to find any old one allowed me to see what types of things there were inside each level of ability.

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Google to me was the most obvious place to start, that may or may not have been the first issue in getting overwhelmed that I had. I started with looking for one for runners, but quickly realized I need to work up to that as I am not even to that yet. So, I redid my search for walkers which seemed like a better place to start. Even looking for a walking training plan there were a lot of options and while I have not found one yet that I will follow I have found a lot of ideas of what I want to include in it and what I should be aiming for. All of them had a time or mile amount that you were supposed to do each day. Depending on the day I may prefer one of the other, I am sure I am not the only one who has noticed this.

As I am going through looking at the different training schedules a common thing across all of them is that they do not have you doing the same thing every day. They have to cross-train involved at least once a week. Now I cannot be the only person who often finds the cross-training activity preferable to the regular activity. Or is that how it is supposed to be. I have done the walking so much that the activity that is supposed to break it up is preferred. Throughout the week though even with the cross-training, they want you to increase the time or distance of the regular activity, which in my case is walking. This is still the setting of alarm bells in my head because of hurdles in this adventure that I am still dealing with. For the record this week has not been a good week for them. They have been winning. But I get the idea of wanting to increase these areas because you are wanting to push yourself to improve to reach your goal.

Some great ideas if you are looking for cross-training ideas are cycling, swimming hiking, rock climbing, inline skating. These are just a few from the list that I found and the common theme to me seems to be just keep yourself active. Which for this type of plan sounds smart. Two of the things listed sound like a lot of fun to me and more enjoyable than just walking. But again, that is probably because I have been doing it so much. I told you already the cross-training ideas are more appealing to me than the regular activity. Now if you are like me and struggling with this idea of time and are wanting to do cross-training there are also YouTube workout videos. Yes, those videos at the beginning of the pandemic that everyone was doing because all the gyms and workout classes that we went to in person were gone. I have also been trying to go hiking more. Not as part of a cross-training thing but for fun so as more of in addition to all of this. Though I would have to say aside from workout videos a personal favorite cross-training activity that I can not do often is swimming.

Being consistent with the training plan is obviously how you will see improvement to it. Challenging yourself by increasing things to keep them challenging and interesting is important. Being consistent with just trying and doing something in addition to whatever your normal daily life activity is how you can even just simply create the habit. To be honest this has been my focus, just being consistent with doing some form of a workout to grow the habit that I am trying to make. Now if you had asked me yesterday what else I want from the plan I would have said to learn how to increase what I am doing to reach my goal of moving toward running. But today I am thinking that I need to start a little further back than that. Just going for a simple walk every day. Then increase the distance week by week before I even go into training plans and schedules.

Some people may try to power through and go straight to a running training plan and schedule. To me, that sounds like a great way to give up and not complete this. I am going against a lifetime of bad habits and a mindset of not being good at running. It is going to be breaking one habit after another and then replacing that with a good habit that goes toward my goal. So, no I am nowhere near ready to start looking at running training plans. And I had thought that I was ready to start looking at walking ones but realizing how much I do not like this form of exercise I am rethinking that for where I am in this process. A month in I am still very much struggling with the time thing, so a friend helped me break it down even further into what would appear to be more manageable goals to help me get to a point where a training plan might make sense.

What would you do if I told you that how you have been sizing your shoes for working out is wrong? As I have been progressing in this adventure, I have been excited to get a new pair of what I dub running shoes. Which is what they are, but I use the distinction to know they are shoes specially sized. If you are a runner or not, I highly recommend that you go to a running shoe store and get sized. If you are on your feet for long periods of the day without the opportunity to sit these shoes can make a world of difference. I will not recommend a brand or anything like that but more that you get this done as it is life-changing.

Having the right equipment as well as the right level of a training schedule for where you are at in your journey, I have learned is important. While you hear a group of fitness professionals consistently say just do it, you have the time. As I have been working on this goal and figuring all these steps out, there are a lot of mental blocks that people have to overcome, that those professionals do not seem to know or give credit to. Yet I have heard many more fitness professionals will work with you to help you go through the mental things and encourage you through them. Now I am not saying you need to fork out the money for a trainer. But in researching and going through the process of where I am at and what is causing my pitfalls, I have had to become even more aware of the voices that I am listening to and giving attention to. This has caused me to need to break some goals down a little bit further but the more important thing is that progress is still being made toward the ultimate goal.

Honeymoon Fitness Time Over, Now For The Hard Work

I am beginning to learn that goals have something like a honeymoon period. You’re all excited at first doing it every day; seeing the start of progress like you can taste what the finish line might be like. Then life happens responsibilities, not feeling good, or any other of the numerous things that constitute a lie. That has been what has been happening to me these last couple of weeks and I am less than thrilled about it. Now to be specific I do not have kids, but responsibilities and as well as not feeling good have been adding to an already existing struggle. For other people though kids and responsibilities involving kids may add into this, or aging parents and the responsibilities involving that may add in.

For me, though it has been a mixture of responsibilities, not feeling good, and weirdly losing my mojo for doing this. These struggles are all added onto the continuing one of feeling like I do not have time. But the losing the mojo thing has kind of been odd, I am at the point in building the habit that I subconsciously know I should do it but this feeling of just ‘bleh’ came over me. It was not a feeling of lethargy just ‘bleh’. Part of the ‘bleh’ came from not feeling good, but it was not even like sick and bedridden not feeling good. Looking back a part of me feels like I just gave excuses. It was just not feeling good life sucks kind of way. Which does not help the feeling of having given excuses because I did not use the time to help myself not feel like life sucks. Now I know that is not true but looking back that is how I feel, and I am sure that I am not the only one who feels like that in certain situations. Adding that to the issues of feeling like I do not have time which I am still struggling with and probably will for a while, yet it just did not happen for me.

Working to keep this goal going is proving to be interesting, like anything it obviously takes work. But it also seems that there are going to be more areas I will have to work on than just the fitness parts to accomplish this goal like self-motivation. Now I am good at trying to motivate and encourage others. I am not always the best at doing it for myself which I do not think is very uncommon. Now I consider myself a semi-decent self-starter, but it is something I have struggled with in many areas of my life in the past. I am currently wondering if I am anywhere near what I will need to be to accomplish this. I am thinking that if I get better at that then when these ‘bleh’ periods come it will be easier to feel like I am still progressing in my habit and goal without feeling like I am sliding backward. Not sure we shall see how this goes and if that helps.

So with all of that in mind, I have not given up, but I am going back to 20 mins walks, 6 flights of stairs split into two sets, and yoga to keep it interesting. The current issue going forward seems to be remembering to do the second set of stairs. I get the first set done and then I get distracted and before I know it, I am walking out the door to go to work. Oie life, I will get better at this, but it is definitely going to take time. Am I alone in that issue though for those of you who work out at home? I know in a gym it is a different story, you would go and not leave until your entire workout is done. Maybe it is taking a break between sets, but my thighs will go on strike if I do not take a break. They are burning after the first three. When I say six flights some may consider it twelve because there are stairs then a landing then stairs and then the second floor. On the landing, there are no rooms. I go from the ground floor to the second floor and count that as one flight. My thighs which have never been strong do not like it. Part of the reason I like to do it is the pain and feeling of muscles working. Maybe I am weird.

Yoga is proving to be another issue altogether. While for a long time I have enjoyed learning bits of yoga here and there. Right now, I am having a hard time getting into it, I have yet to complete a whole video and it is not exciting me. When faced with the three options of what I am doing I am not choosing Yoga. I even have been trying to rotate through doing the different things on different days and Yoga is just not winning out on any front. I keep saying oh I will do it tomorrow and then say the same thing the next day. I am thinking I need to switch to a different one, but I am hesitant to do that because I still want all the benefits that come from doing yoga because I think they will help in the long run. But I am also thinking that it may not be a good idea to try to force myself as it may cause a kind of burnout. Or maybe I am just overthinking the whole thing and just need to switch it out. Not sure yet.

If you haven’t figured out this is me being real that for me this goal is hard and a real struggle. But I am doing everything I can on my own to make sure I am doing it right. The one thing I have not done that is always recommended is to talk to my doctor before starting this. It is often recommended to consult your Doctor when doing new fitness things, or at least that is what it says in the disclaimers on the workout videos. On top of that after having a conversation with my roommate I have realized that I need to learn about something called a training plan. Now I have heard of these from coaching swimming, but I was only an assistant coach so uh what the heck is that. Oh, this should be fun, and now this raises more questions that will require research because as I grow in consistency with my habit when do I switch to implementing the training plan? Yeah, the honeymoon phase is very much over, and a lot of hard work is coming my way, and apparently, more than I originally thought.

Looks like I will be figuring out how to break this down even further to make sure these things stay manageable. Also, to make sure I do not freak myself into thinking I am overwhelmed and cannot do it. Which we all know is not the case, but with the mental struggle about time, I have been having you never know where that will end. Starting points are going to be Pinterest and Google for the training plan templates and an idea of what it is. It is also going to hopefully help me figure out how much I should be increasing and how quickly I should be doing it. While I do not think there is a set rate for how quickly you should increase, I am not an expert on this. Something I learned is that if you have any kind of goal that seems big, I highly recommend breaking it down into smaller goals to make it more achievable and manageable. It has helped in avoiding being discouraged. For me, I just got to figure out when to increase to the next goal.

As I am working on these smaller goals, learning a lot of new information, trying to keep myself motivated; I can start to see maybe people do just fall off and let old habits continue. I personally do not want to do that. While all this information and work is a lot and a tad overwhelming, I not only know it is going to help my health and fitness-wise. I like learning it, it is interesting to me. I think this is because I like helping people develop healthy habits and for once I am forcing myself to develop healthy habits. So, using this information to help myself and learning about it is interesting. Never thought I would ever say that, and while these struggles will probably not go away, they are not going to end this journey. It is weirdly fun, that may lead to something in the future like a certification but that is getting ahead of myself I am not there yet. One step at a time.

Starting at Ground Zero to Make Your Goal

A common thing that people do this time of year is make New Year’s resolutions. For a long time, I was never a huge proponent of doing this, but my current roommate got me onto the idea. It is common for me though not to start them right on January 1 but either before or after the first of the year because I wanted to rebel a bit. This helped in me wanting to start this journey of going from being a couch potato to running a 5k. Now I am not a runner, I have always had a hard time running even when I was a kid so ground zero starting this sounds about like the right place to start for me.

What does it take to run a 5k? Well, it takes a lot of work for starters ugh I am half turned off the idea already. For someone who has never run a race let alone run for any amount of distance in a long time what does that mean? It means I am questioning life choices now; it means I must learn how to get endurance for starters and then how to increase it. It will also mean not letting every little ache and pain turn me off of this idea. Last year I had a New Year’s goal of being able to run 5k, this did not happen for a plethora of reasons one of those being I do not work out. You can not run without putting in the work to be able to do it unfortunately. Which led me to understand another issue that I have of just having the habit of working out. We will get more into that later though.

I do not know if this could be considered a New Year’s resolution, rather it is me bringing you along on a real-world journey for someone who is not a runner to try to chase this sensation known as a runners high. There are times that I think I have felt this sensation called a runner’s high once a long time ago, but I question it a lot because I have never felt it since. What I do remember though is a confidence that I would love to feel again and more often. So how do I get there? How do I find this elusive thing again? Simple a lot of hard work which in turn means UGH!

Why am I starting from ground zero when I do know a thing or two? Simple I am not a gym rat, and I am not a runner as I have said. I am a plus size person who has not worked out consistently in a long time. It is not a bad thing to start from ground zero and to be honest more people need to start these things at this level then do. But this is about my choices, such choices that lead me to start this adventure a couple of days after Christmas in the slush. Not snow but slush which led to very wet feet for a 20-minute walk. I walked for 10 minutes then turned around and came back. Thankfully the temperatures were not terrible otherwise it would have been even more miserable, and I do not know if I still would have continued with the walk then.

Walking is just one of the things that I am doing this month to reach my goal. As I stated I am starting from ground zero, now that means I must build in the habit of exercising. So that is what I am currently working on. Is it easy nope, more often I am going through my morning before I go to work feeling that I do not have time which is not true. So, I am starting with smaller things, walking, working on making it through a complete yoga video, and 3 laps up and down the stairs in my house. They are intentionally small because right now the very thought of spending more time on them is freaking me out. I know that I can but I have to work up to it, moving to a 30 minute walk for example.

A pitfall for me when making fitness habits is trying to do to much to quickly. Which can feel like a good thing but, can be a bad thing as well. A bad thing because as I have mentioned fitness has never been my strong suit. But a good thing for feeling like progress has been made in getting further along. Right now I did really well this last week with doing sets of stairs. The thing I wanted to improve on but did not want to push because I felt that would discourage me was walking outside. That is a goal for this coming week as I that will keep reaffirming the habit and make me feel like I am making progress. Who know I may get to a time where I do both walks and sets of stairs in the same day.

I do acknowledge that there was a time where I has good habits and I was working out at least 30 minutes a day at a gym for a few years. That is not where I am now though, and that is not just due to Covid. Being in a worse place as well as a different place in this situation should be expected and is okay. I am older than I was then, and my body is also different not just weight wise. But I am starting, no idea where this journey of “Couch to 5k” is going to take me but well I have to say it is going to be interesting.

So one thing I am not tackling yet is food, now the reason for this is because right now is I am habit building. You should build good food habits yes; I know this and will get to that but doing to many changes to quickly will for me cause failure. So, I am taking it a little change at a time to create lasting habits and be successful at them. I do not have a terrible diet, but there is definitely room for improvement. I am also not actively trying to lose weight while doing this. Weight loss may come because of it, and to be honest I hope it does. But I am not going into this with an attitude of “oh I am going to lose so much weight”. No, I am going into this with the attitude of seeing a finish line knowing I ran the whole thing.

I am intending to have options for workouts as I go through this for many reasons. One of the first and probably biggest reasons is to minimize time excuses. Second is to keep some varity in this in the early stages to keep in interesting while I am getting the habit of working out daily in place. I am sure I have more but those were the two that were on the top of my head. In addition to stairs the actual workout that I wanted to start with was Yoga. The stretching movement and core building that your have to do to hold the poses seemed like a great area for starting. I wanted to supplement walking with it. To be honest that has not gone according to plan and has been altered many times.

Going through the first full week of the year included the weekend. I was worried I would make excuses and fall off and not continue this journey as it has happened before. Good news while life happened over the weekend which prevented me from working out Monday, I was able to start right back up again with stairs. I even did an extra flight of stairs. Yoga I am finding harder than expected as I am not making it through a whole video very often. I may have hit a point where I need to push my self a little harder to get through it. I am still enjoying it but on average I make it about 11 to 12 minutes. I have not put much thought into the why though.

Welcome to this crazy journey that I decided to start on. I have figured I am encouraging all of you to embrace and go after what you want with your confidence. Time to put the money where the mouth is. While it is definitely not hat I expected it to be at this point I know I am just starting and I really want to know what this elusive runner high feels like. I hear about it and thin I may have felt it once in my life. I ant to know if I am right about that, and if I am wrong how much better is it than what I am thinking. So come along subscribe if you want to see the ups and many downs that are sure to come from this and the unexpected changes that will come that I have not even thought of yet. This will be the best and hardest decision I have made yet.