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Fitness: The Journey Begins
Jan. 14th, 2014 08:33 pmI have circled this thing called fitness for years, but I have never really embraced it.
For me fitness has always been equated with exercise and diets and I have never been an exercise and diet kind of girl. My problem? I was cursed with a good metabolism.
Now before you start booing me, let me explain. Because I never had to worry about my weight, I could pretty much eat what I wanted and didn't have to exercise to maintain my "ideal" weight. The result? I was thin, but not fit - and yes, there is very much a difference.
The trade off was more than okay with me when I was in my 20's and healthy by default and I basked in my metabolic glory in my 30's when my girlfriends were struggling with losing post baby weight (I gained 25 lbs when pregnant & had dropped them all by the time my son was one month old). My 40's saw a slight dip in my metabolism possibly due to the natural decline of hormones and for the first time in my life I saw the scales tip upwards a few pounds.
More alarming than the 15 lb weight gain were the aches & pains that I was starting to feel culminating in a 2 year battle with frozen shoulders and creaky knees.
I started taking bikram yoga as a way to loosen up my shoulders (I had already gone the surgery route & while that helped for a while, the shoulders soon started stiffening up again). I liked the yoga, but par for the course - I didn't make it a regular practice only going once or twice per week.
But now that I am nearing 50 (in about 5 months) I have decided that its nigh time I take my fitness seriously while I still can.
So what I am doing to jump start my fitness journey?
*This journal for starters. I am hoping it will keep me focused and accountable. I very much doubt anyone besides myself will read these meanderings, but it gives me a place to record my progress and lets me "talk" out my thoughts which is always helpful.
*I subscribed to Fitness magazine - a good source of inspiration & a plethora of information
*Downloaded MY FITNESS PAL app to help track my calorie intake
*Committed to increase my bikram yoga practice to 3-4 days per week
Goals:
*complete a bikram 30 day challenge in July
*lose that sneaky 15 lbs
*get back on my bike this summer
So, here we are...as of tomorrow morning we are go for fitness!
For me fitness has always been equated with exercise and diets and I have never been an exercise and diet kind of girl. My problem? I was cursed with a good metabolism.
Now before you start booing me, let me explain. Because I never had to worry about my weight, I could pretty much eat what I wanted and didn't have to exercise to maintain my "ideal" weight. The result? I was thin, but not fit - and yes, there is very much a difference.
The trade off was more than okay with me when I was in my 20's and healthy by default and I basked in my metabolic glory in my 30's when my girlfriends were struggling with losing post baby weight (I gained 25 lbs when pregnant & had dropped them all by the time my son was one month old). My 40's saw a slight dip in my metabolism possibly due to the natural decline of hormones and for the first time in my life I saw the scales tip upwards a few pounds.
More alarming than the 15 lb weight gain were the aches & pains that I was starting to feel culminating in a 2 year battle with frozen shoulders and creaky knees.
I started taking bikram yoga as a way to loosen up my shoulders (I had already gone the surgery route & while that helped for a while, the shoulders soon started stiffening up again). I liked the yoga, but par for the course - I didn't make it a regular practice only going once or twice per week.
But now that I am nearing 50 (in about 5 months) I have decided that its nigh time I take my fitness seriously while I still can.
So what I am doing to jump start my fitness journey?
*This journal for starters. I am hoping it will keep me focused and accountable. I very much doubt anyone besides myself will read these meanderings, but it gives me a place to record my progress and lets me "talk" out my thoughts which is always helpful.
*I subscribed to Fitness magazine - a good source of inspiration & a plethora of information
*Downloaded MY FITNESS PAL app to help track my calorie intake
*Committed to increase my bikram yoga practice to 3-4 days per week
Goals:
*complete a bikram 30 day challenge in July
*lose that sneaky 15 lbs
*get back on my bike this summer
So, here we are...as of tomorrow morning we are go for fitness!
