There’s no hurry for the road is long

 This is how I ended my year with workouts. November was very hectic and December gifted me with the flu of the century, but by the last week of the year I was able to get back into the swing of things.  

This was my gym on New Year’s Day. The next day I practically had to park on the roof. With February around the corner, unfortunately a lot of folks have already fallen off the improved fitness resolution bandwagon.

I am no expert, but I think I work out fairly regularly.  A while back I realized that if I wanted to have any hope of surviving a zombie apocalypse improve my overall health and well being,  I needed to start exercising.  When I started working out I was on a tight budget, so a gym or a trainer were not options. I started by walking around a neighborhood park for an hour. After some time I was able to slow jog for half of the last lap, and eventually I got to the point where I was able to run for the hour.

I would see these incredibly fit older people at the park every time I was there doing their Tai Chi, jogging with their sweatbands and their leg warmers, speed walking with their Walkmans and it slowly began to dawn on me…. I am going to have keep this up forever….  You see that’s the part I don’t think gets stressed enough. I think that’s the part that a lot of people overlook, don’t realize and/or don’t understand. You hear words like maintenance, consistency, regimen, lifestyle. Those are all fancy words which mean, for the rest of your natural life.

Source: Women’s Health December 2012; pgs 58 & 59

I’m not saying this to scare anyone. In fact when I realized that I found it quite freeing. I realized it wasn’t something I had to conquer that summer. It was something I would need to keep doing so I could pace myself. I started out walking and running and then branched out in to other activities like weight training, yoga and more recently Pilates.

From left to right: work out calendars from 2011, 2012 & 2013

I’m all for exercise resolutions and goals. I make them too. Sometimes I meet them sometime I don’t. Life happens.  You get sick. A family member gets sick. Your workload gets doubled.  The car dies.  I get it. I don’t however give up, because I remember what I learned that summer over a decade ago. Slowly, steadily, surely for the rest of my natural life.

Start. Keep at it. Save me a parking spot 🙂

   Stardate :13111.20