My Fitness Journey

Hello All!  For my first new genre on this blog, I'd like to add a portion about my fitness journey.  Like many individuals I have struggled with my image, my weight, and my health in general for almost my entire life.  I've been working toward being a healthier version of myself for a while now but I'm ready to take it to the next level.

Why am I going on a fitness journey and what exactly does that mean?  These are two questions I have been asking myself for the last several months.  My history with fitness has seen both ends of the spectrum.

At one point in my life I lived off fast food, and the only exercise I experienced was any mobility that was required for me to function as a human being.  When I was nearly 200lbs (I'm only 5' tall), I went through some personal struggles and found myself motivated to change who I was and how I felt about myself, both mentally and physically.  I then began trying fade diets and trendy workout routines and managed to shed about 50lbs.  I was proud of my accomplishment but settled for where I was and fell into all my old bad habits.

Then I met my future husband (though I didn't now it at the time), and I spent time enjoying life, which included a lot of food and cuddling on the couch.  Neither of which were good for my waistline.  Fast forward a few years, my future husband and I are still together but find ourselves in a long distance relationship.  With nothing to do and no one but my boyfriend's dog to keep me company, I found myself spending a great deal of time hiking and enjoying working out.  In fact, I enjoyed working out so much that I spent the majority of my free time either on the trails or on bad weather days on the treadmill.  In the six months my boyfriend I spent apart I became more fit than I had ever been and was down to a very trim 135lbs.

June 20, 2009

Since, that time so long ago my boyfriend and I became husband and wife, and now have two kids.  Life in general has been very hectic and though I haven't fallen in to all of my old bad habits, I have too many that are hindering me from being the person I want to be.  For the most part I have learned to except my body, it's not perfect but its mine and like most things in life there is always room for improvement.

The real reason I am taking this fitness journey is because I want to be a better me for my children, my husband, and myself.  I want to set a good example for my children, and I hope they learned to love and take care of themselves sooner in life than I am. I want to be physically fit enough to chase them around and play sports with them as they get older.  I want to be around for as long as I possibly can, and not be a burden on others because I failed to take care of myself.  If I shed some pounds and inches along the way, all the better.

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For me being fit and healthy is not so much about how much I weigh or how I look but more about how I feel.  (Though weight and body measurements are the easiest way to track progress.)  When I workout regularly I feel better, I sleep better, I feel stronger, I feel younger (not that I am all that old yet), I feel healthier.  I miss those feelings, and I want them back.

The other why, you might be asking is: why am I blogging about my fitness journey?  In all honesty, I'm blogging about my journey more for myself than for you, my reads.  The hardest part about staying on track is motivation and accountability.  I believe that by sharing with all of you what I am doing and how I am progressing that it will keep me heading down the proper path.  In away I am making you my accounta-billa-buddy, and  I do hope to motivate others through this journey, because I know I am not on this path alone and this journey is not always easy.

The second question was, what do I mean by fitness journey?  It is my opinion, that for a person to be truly fit and healthy they have to turn bad habits to good habits and make it routine to make a proper health conscious decisions.  I call this a journey because I am committing to change various aspects of my lifestyle that will take me from where I am now to where I want to be in the future.  I also suspect that as time goes on and changes are implemented that I will have other fitness goals that I will want to reach.  I see this as a never ending journey, a path that will have many forks ahead.

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As I progress on this journey, I have a few immediate obstacles to overcome to get myself going.  The first being my tremendously bad eating habits.  I am an all around terrible eater!  I like to reward myself with food, I eat when I'm stressed, I eat when I'm bored, and I am a social eater too.  Worst of all I am a sporadic eater.  At times, I will go an entire day without eating, and than eat whatever I want because I am starving.  And as far as my food choices, lets just say if it's bad for you I love it, the sweeter, the salter, the better.  Fruits and veggies are nearly non-existent in my personal menu.  This is one of the hardest but most important hurtle I will have to fight to overcome and remain on track with.

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The other obstacle I immediately face is time management.  Like most people I have barely enough time to do the things I need to, along with spending time with my family, and doing things that I enjoy.  This is why I often put exercising on the back burner, in my mind taking care of myself has been a low priority item.  It is time to change that.  I really need to learn to better manage my time, and re-prioritize things to make more time for taking care of myself, preparing healthier meals and working out regularly.  I have already started working toward this over the last couple months by making time to work out 3-5 times a week for about 20 minutes, and I have been preparing meals at home more regularly than I did previously.

I have a long way to go, but I feel I am beginning a good foundation for the changes I want to make and stick to in the future.  It is my opinion, that in order to make good habits stick they should be implemented gradually and worked on until they become routine.  My current goal is to implement one or two minor changes a week, so not to overwhelm myself and fall off track.  I think this will help me be more successful in the long run.

On this blog I intend to share weekly updates that will include stats such as weight and measurements, what I did through out the week, and future targets and goals.  I also plan to share health tips and healthy recipes too.  And because I am human, I am sure that I will have some set backs and I plan to share those with you as well.  The desire being to learn from my experiences.

My overall goal for this journey and this segment of my blog, is to create a healthy lifestyle for myself and my family, and to encourage others around me to do so as well.  If you are on this path I hope you find my journey encouraging and if you are planning to start this journey as well, I wish to inspire you.  Whether you are cheering for me from the side lines or traveling down this trail with me, thank you for joining me.  Stay tuned for my first weekly stat report, I plan to report on every Monday, check back soon.

Just Me,