I have always been interested in physical fitness.
No, that’s a lie.
In my 30’s, I decided I should start getting fit.
No, that’s another lie.
In my 40’s, I thought it was time to buckle down and get
serious about getting fit.
Liar Liar, pants on
fire.
After I moved to Alaska at the age of 51 to take care of my
Father (who lived in a senior independent living facility) and saw firsthand,
up close that we reap what we sow in regard to our physical fitness, I started
trying to get in shape.
I am such a fucking
liar.
I was 54 when my Father passed last year and suddenly found
myself with no one to care for and lots of time on my hands. Several months later, still thinking about getting in shape, I got a
postcard in the mail from a local gym located in close proximity to my office,
advertising a special buy one year get six months free. Now
that appealed to me, a bargain and a chance to get in shape.
And the truth shall
set you free.
I am here to tell you that if I can get in shape… ANYONE can get in shape. By nature, I am a very lazy person who could
easily wile away my time reading and watching movies. However, I am here to tell you that in order
to get in shape… (Drum roll, please) You actually have to physically do something
about it.
“A journey of a
thousand miles begins with a single step”
Lao-Tzu
Taking that first step into the gym for my first workout was
hard but once I got through the door and into the locker room, I felt like I
had taken the first steps to a new lifestyle. Since I love music and it has always been
such a big part of my life, getting the perfect gym playlist on my iPhone was tantamount
to my workout routine.
It allows me to shut everything else around me and concentrate on what I
am doing which then leads to starting to breathe properly as opposed to my
quadruple type A, anxious, asthma breathing.
The only thing I have to refrain from doing is busting a move right there on the treadmill. Hehehehe...
I started off with just 10 minutes on the treadmill, working
out a few machines and doing a bit of free weights. It sounds simple but when you haven’t been
working out, it felt like a lot of work.
Then I started feeling better when I left, tired but in a good way, a
bit relaxed and more energized. I guess
that was the endorphins starting to kick in.
And I liked it!
Sucker me; I signed up for the personal trainer program but after
3 sessions that has turned into a FUBAR nightmare I am still trying to unravel
so I have been doing everything on my own ever since. All I will say is “Body Renew or Body Rigged”.
More details on this later as they
become available...
After several weeks of going three times a week, I noticed I
was starting to look forward to going to the gym and if I wasn’t able to go, I
missed it. My asthma is usually the
only reason I can’t go and I don’t force it.
But I didn’t just want to do nothing, so I started doing yoga and tai
chai DVD’s if I wasn’t up to the gym. Now on the days I don’t go to the gym, I try
to do one of my ballet exercise DVD’s or do Zumba on my Wii.
Now the more I go to the gym, the more I want to push myself to do another sets of reps on a machine or add more weight to a machine or use bigger free weights. Since I am just a "tad" uber competitive, I want to challenge myself to do more.
However, in the beginning, I was very discouraged that I wasn’t losing weight and in
fact gained a few pounds but I was told to put the scales away and judge my
fitness by how I felt and how my clothes were fitting. Then, little by little my clothes started
fitting better and better and I started not dreading figuring out what I was
going to wear every day.
I have also learned to be smart about working out and not
pushing body parts to do things that are going to hurt me later. After breaking my foot several years ago and
having to have it surgically put back together, it won’t take a lot of walking
so I limit myself to 30 minutes on the treadmill. My knees are shot due to high heels and the
broken foot so if it starts twinging, I don’t push myself on those
machines.
Sometimes I feel like I am the only person on a treadmill
who is not running but running for me has only occurred in my life in a couple
of ways: (1) Running to a sale (2) Running away from good men. I used to only sweat if I was doing, in the
words of Bob Seger,” The Horizontal Bop”.
But I love the endorphins so I don’t even mind the sweating anymore
since apparently I am in my spinster years.
I don’t believe in dieting because for me, I think it could possibly
lead to me driving my car head on into a Bastard-Robbins (it’s funny to me) and
diving into the ice cream freezers. I
had to make a lifestyle change which was not hard because I love fruits and veggies,
don’t like sodas, salt or fast food.
However, working out makes me feel ok about eating things like pizza,
burgers (not fast food ones though) and one of my lifelong loves,
chocolate.
So, all it takes is that first step for you to be on your
road to getting fit. Start small so you
won’t feel overwhelmed. Being fit does
not require you to go to a gym, just walking on a regular basis will help and
hopefully you will like it and want to do more.
If Dorothy the Lazy can
do this, so can you!!
