Changes
Two years ago, after being fired and spiraling into a depression, I was invited to get off my ass by a friend of mine who knew that I had practically stopped moving since being fired. I had ballooned to over 450 pounds and rarely left my house if food wasn't involved.
We decided to walk over a bridge in the area. I live near the ocean and intracoastal so there are bridges everywhere and most of them have walking ramps up the sides.
We walked up one side of the bridge. Perhaps 0.3 of a mile. We had to stop 3-4 times. I cried. We walked back down having gone 0.6 of a mile. It took us an hour. I threw up in the bushes. And cried. Again.
I was so embarrassed. But she encouraged me to come back out and do a little more the next week, so I did.
In the last two years I have little by little added into what I do and this morning I did 2.4 miles up and over one of our local bridges in 50 minutes. Seems impressive right?
Well, hold onto your socks. Because some huge changes started in my life about a month ago. Because I'm completely nuts, I decided in the heat of the summer, to start a new program with that first friend who got me off the couch.
Saturday mornings we do intervals: we walk 90 seconds and then run 30 seconds. I can do this for about 2 miles. I sweat like I'm bleeding from a head wound, and it is really hard to slow my breathing down, but I learned that I'm not wheezing, and I don't need a rescue inhaler, and I also learned that I can do SO MUCH MORE than I ever imagined.
Two weekends ago I did 1.8 miles doing intervals and then the next day I did a 5K for the One Orlando Fund.
I have no idea what I'm capable of because it turns out the only thing holding me back was me. So now I'm walking almost every day, running twice a week, changing my eating habits... and what will come will come.
It has been more than a year since I used this blog, but I think I might want to keep track of the things that I can and can't do, and the wins, losses, and middle ground I find in all of this.
Here we go.
We decided to walk over a bridge in the area. I live near the ocean and intracoastal so there are bridges everywhere and most of them have walking ramps up the sides.
We walked up one side of the bridge. Perhaps 0.3 of a mile. We had to stop 3-4 times. I cried. We walked back down having gone 0.6 of a mile. It took us an hour. I threw up in the bushes. And cried. Again.
I was so embarrassed. But she encouraged me to come back out and do a little more the next week, so I did.
In the last two years I have little by little added into what I do and this morning I did 2.4 miles up and over one of our local bridges in 50 minutes. Seems impressive right?
Well, hold onto your socks. Because some huge changes started in my life about a month ago. Because I'm completely nuts, I decided in the heat of the summer, to start a new program with that first friend who got me off the couch.
Saturday mornings we do intervals: we walk 90 seconds and then run 30 seconds. I can do this for about 2 miles. I sweat like I'm bleeding from a head wound, and it is really hard to slow my breathing down, but I learned that I'm not wheezing, and I don't need a rescue inhaler, and I also learned that I can do SO MUCH MORE than I ever imagined.
Two weekends ago I did 1.8 miles doing intervals and then the next day I did a 5K for the One Orlando Fund.
I have no idea what I'm capable of because it turns out the only thing holding me back was me. So now I'm walking almost every day, running twice a week, changing my eating habits... and what will come will come.
It has been more than a year since I used this blog, but I think I might want to keep track of the things that I can and can't do, and the wins, losses, and middle ground I find in all of this.
Here we go.