About a month ago, I blogged about my challenge to myself lose weight. Today’s progress report shows that I’ve not lost any weight. The good news is I haven’t gained weight either, and this is always a good thing. I spent the day thinking about why I had failed to take off on the whole healthy lifestyle thing I promised myself I would enter into. One very obvious and simple reason is the fact that I have yet to really commit myself to exercise. I honestly don’t understand why people enjoy it so much, like my sister who thrives on exercise, and chooses to jog to release stress. Maybe I’ve never committed to a workout routine long enough for me to feel the happy hormone effect of it all. I mean, even my mother-in-law who has recently turned into a Zumbaholic is now more radiant and glowing and slimmer than I’ve ever seen her, and I’m guessing it’s basically because she gets her blood pumping every day. Of course, my eternal excuse is that I’m a very busy person, and I can’t figure out how to squeeze exercise into my already full schedule. I know, it’s the oldest excuse in the book, and many others have already found a way around it, so why can’t I, right?
The good news is, I’ve managed to keep my eating in check, for the most part at least. My newfound friend is My Fitness Pal, which allows me to easily track my calorie intake, and eventually my exercise progress as well, once I get started. I like how it inputs your calories burned and subtracts them from your calories taken in, so you really feel that the effort is all worth it. It also let’s you make a nice weight tracker badge that you can add to your website. Here’s mine!
I figure that I need a tangible exercise goal to get me started, ideally something with a concrete deadline. As fate would have it, 11.11.11 brought me just that. An opportunity arose today that will allow me to take on my first 5k with adequate time to condition myself. This is reminiscent of my Subic 3k stint a few years ago when I was still with Smart. That time however, laziness got the better of me and I put off training for the run so many times that i found myself totally unprepared on the morning of the event, and I ended up walking the whole 3k leisurely with my sister. And to think, that was only a 3k fun run. While I thoroughly enjoyed the view and the sunrise that morning, I refuse to cheat myself that way again. If my knees will let me, I plan to run at least half of that 5k next year. That means I need to start getting my legs used to it. That means I should start soon.
I have an optimistic outlook as far as this health and wellness endeavor is concerned, and for the first time in a long time, I really want to see this through. I want to succeed. This is a long overdue effort that I’m delving into not just for aesthetic reasons, but more importantly to be fit and well. That makes for a good start, as far as I’m concerned. I’m looking forward to sharing the journey, and I hope to give and receive inspiration as I go along. Wish me luck, yeah? 52lbs to go!