Make the Committment!

Ok, so I know I told you we would discuss strength training, but I needed to write this blog first.  What most of you don't know is that when I began this blog it was because my mom and her friend had decided to join this biggest loser competition at the school that they work at.  I thought to myself, "I can share my love of fitness and use my knowledge to help others reach their goals," but behind the scenes I was struggling with finding my own love of fitness again.  Over the past two years I had lost it somewhere along the way.

When my daughter, Pamela was born I was 210 lbs. and struggling with the thought of having to lose all the baby weight.  I became a runner and, since then, have completed 7 marathons and 5 half-marathons.  I love to run, or at least I did.  About s year ago, I woke up and realized I was 30 lbs. heavier, and I hadn't ran in over 7 months.  I decided I would take control and start running again.  What I found was that motivating myself to get up and do it was impossible.  My energy levels had spiraled downhill, and I was embarrassed that when I went for a run I spent more time walking than running.  I wasn't able to run at the level I was used to.  I was ashamed that I had allowed myself to become the out of shape, overweight person that I saw in the mirror, and used it as an excuse not to exercise.  I kept telling myself, "you will never get to the place that you were before, so it is pointless to even try."

So, when my mother mentioned that she and Bette would be doing the biggest loser I decided that if she could get out and work on herself then maybe I could help her.  I was hoping that it would help me too, but I was still focusing so much on all the negative parts of myself  that I didn't really believe it.

As you know, I haven't posted in almost two weeks.  The reason is that after a few weeks of seeing my mom and Bette and others like them work so hard to get their health back, I decided I had to take my own advice before I could give anymore to others.  I took a long hard look at my life and decided that the point wasn't to get back to where I was when I was a marathon runner, but, instead to find my happiness and health again, and whatever that level of fitness was had to be acceptable to me no matter what.  My sister, Megan, had called me and stated that she wanted to run the Palm Beach half-marathon, and that she wanted me to run it with her.I've never ran a race with one of my sisters, but I wanted to say yes so bad because spending that kind of time with her on something I love to do would be so much fun and such a great bonding experience for the two of us.  The problem was that I knew in my heart that I was in no shape to do that kind of race, and I wasn't sure if I would ever be there again.  That's when I decided it was time to commit to change.

As I began to look over my past blogs, I realized that goal setting and taking baby steps was something that I had never really had to do.  I had always been active and never really had known myself to be at any point where I had to work to get into shape.   Even after the birth of Pamela, I just did what came natural to me and lost the weight and kept my fitness levels up.  Now, here I was overweight, depressed and miserable about myself.  How had I gotten to this point?  So for the past two weeks I have done exactly what I have been preaching to you guys.  I set some fitness goals, created rewards and made the commitment.  It hasn't been easy.  I found myself really struggling with hating myself for allowing me to get to this point in my life, and I am still struggling with trying to be the person I used to be, and knowing I can't, but I have still been forcing myself to get out there and run EVERY day. 

The reason that I am writing this today is because last night during my run I finally felt that love and enjoyment again.  For the first time in two years I caught myself smiling and feeling healthy again.  I was able to make it the entire 4 miles without feeling any negative thoughts.  Did I walk some?  Absolutely, but it felt GREAT!  I know some of you are thinking, "4 miles!  I would love to be able to do that.  What is she complaining about?."  I understand that, but for the person who ran 10 miles daily for nearly 10 years, a 4 mile walk/run seemed like a failure to me two weeks ago.  But it suddenly hit me that it isn't about the past.  It's about the here and now.  It's about taking control of your life in the present and forgetting about who you were and choosing to become who you want to be.  It's about getting up everyday and saying today is the day that I will take one more step to becoming better than who I am now.  I have finally found my love of fitness again.

The reason I am sharing this with all of you is that you guys did it for me.  You guys took the first steps to reaching your fitness goals while I had all the knowledge and past experience and wasn't using it for myself.  I was letting my life spiral into an unhealthy lifestyle of sedentary obesity.  So, I want to say thank you.  I have set a goal to run that half-marathon with my sister, and it is going to be glorious even if I have to walk some of the way.  I hope you guys will continue to strive to reach your goals too, and I hope you will keep me posted on your progress as the summer goes by.  Please feel free to comment on any of my blog posts and also, if you have any questions or topics that you want me to cover.  Post them in the comments section, and  I will do my best to help because you guys have truly helped me take the first step to becoming healthier and happier.  Thank you.

For more information on exercise tips and health visit www.myhomegymtoday.com and www.moseleygymnastics.com

Strength Training: Who needs it?

When it comes to strength training, you do not build new muscle cells.  The true fact is that with age comes degradation of muscle cells regardless of your activity or lifestyle.  What happens with strength training is that new muscle mass is developed within each cell that remains.  The potential growth of those proteins, essentially, your red meat, is amazing enough to keep you fit and healthy for life.  You can lose half your muscle cells and half your peak fitness, and still end up healthier at 80 than you were at 20 if you remember that you are a strength and endurance predator...well at least you were created to be one. 

Peak performance declines with age.  A person who can bench press 700 lbs. at 20 will be down to 400 lbs. by age 60.  Those number sound discouraging, but they are not.  I mean, how strong do you really need to be?  Even at age 60 the loss of half your muscle cells in this scenario shows enormous results for what has been done with the remaining cells.  By the way, the world bench press record for a man at 85 is 175 lbs.  That's more than most of us can do now, so remember your body has an amazing ability to stay strong and fit.

I have talked a lot about cardiovascular fitness in my previous blog posts, however, strength training is also a necessary and important part of remaining fit and healthy.  How do you begin a strength training program?  Well that is a little more complex than beginning a cardio routine, however, my first suggestion is to have the right equipment and plan.  We will be discussing this in my next post, however, until then, keep working on the healthy, happy life you deserve.

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