(Originally posted on www.myfitnesspal.com on July 19, 2012)
I have dieted. I have exercised. I have dieted AND exercised. And I have always quit. Something else has always come up that made the diet/exercise thing one more stress that I didn't need.
It wasn't always this way, y'know. I was 5'9" and weighed 130 when I got married. Tall and skinny. Shoot, until I hit the later years of high school, my mom had to order boy jeans for me so the waist and length could be separate measurements - it was the only way to get them skinny enough and long enough at the same time. I had a crazy high metabolism, too. So I could eat anything and never put on weight.
But the summer I was 29, my husband had some health issues and I spent a lot of time at hospitals where my main exercise was walking from his room down to the cafeteria, then back to the room, where I sat and read or watched TV.
Then there were the sedentary jobs. Office jobs. Sweet, cushy office jobs. Where you sit most of the day.
But the eating didn't change. I was a farm girl, my mom was a good cook, and she enjoyed cooking. So meals often included meat, 2-3 vegetables, some kind of bread, and a dessert. That's how I was raised...that's how I continued.
And slowly the scale numbers climbed.
So here I am now, staring my 50th birthday squarely in the face in 7 months, and seeing numbers on both the scale and my pants sizes that I never dreamed I would see. And yet I couldn't find the hook...the reason...to really get serious and do something about it.
Then this kid ambled into my life. I say "kid" because he's become the same as a son to me, even though he's in his mid-20s. But he's a professional runner. And I have watched him and what he puts himself through to be at the top of his form. I've watched the miles and miles and MILES that he runs...the hours and hours that he works out...the way he has diligently rehabbed an injury...and the very strict diet he keeps himself on.
And I think,, "If he can do it, I can do it." I have no excuses anymore. It's time to protect my health while I'm still mostly healthy and rehab my lifestyle so I can keep plugging along.
And so it begins.
It wasn't always this way, y'know. I was 5'9" and weighed 130 when I got married. Tall and skinny. Shoot, until I hit the later years of high school, my mom had to order boy jeans for me so the waist and length could be separate measurements - it was the only way to get them skinny enough and long enough at the same time. I had a crazy high metabolism, too. So I could eat anything and never put on weight.
But the summer I was 29, my husband had some health issues and I spent a lot of time at hospitals where my main exercise was walking from his room down to the cafeteria, then back to the room, where I sat and read or watched TV.
Then there were the sedentary jobs. Office jobs. Sweet, cushy office jobs. Where you sit most of the day.
But the eating didn't change. I was a farm girl, my mom was a good cook, and she enjoyed cooking. So meals often included meat, 2-3 vegetables, some kind of bread, and a dessert. That's how I was raised...that's how I continued.
And slowly the scale numbers climbed.
So here I am now, staring my 50th birthday squarely in the face in 7 months, and seeing numbers on both the scale and my pants sizes that I never dreamed I would see. And yet I couldn't find the hook...the reason...to really get serious and do something about it.
Then this kid ambled into my life. I say "kid" because he's become the same as a son to me, even though he's in his mid-20s. But he's a professional runner. And I have watched him and what he puts himself through to be at the top of his form. I've watched the miles and miles and MILES that he runs...the hours and hours that he works out...the way he has diligently rehabbed an injury...and the very strict diet he keeps himself on.
And I think,, "If he can do it, I can do it." I have no excuses anymore. It's time to protect my health while I'm still mostly healthy and rehab my lifestyle so I can keep plugging along.
And so it begins.
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