When I decided to get determined and start my fitness and weight loss journey I couldn't really decide how I wanted to go about doing it. I contemplated many different ideas...
- Finding a pool: No pool close enough to my apartment, plus the whole process of getting wet every day after work just didn't appeal to me.
- Joining a gym: Pretty big monetary commitment for something I didn't know how much time I would have given I was starting my first year of teaching.
- Crossfit: I have limited use of my arms because of my RA and there seems to be a lot of need for arm strength.
- Jillian Michaels: Lots of people love Jillian and I'm sure her videos provide great results, but I don't like her. I think she's mean and I really need some happiness in my workout videos. Plus I live on the second floor with obnoxious downstairs neighbors.
- Zumba:
I am so cordinated.Ha! I took a Zumba class once (on accident...I looked at the wrong calendar at the gym and showed up to the wrong class). Never again.
Lucky for me, I got a job in August teaching at an AMAZING school. There are no words to describe how amazing my school is and how much I love everyone who works there. The staff is very close and does a lot together. During one of our first staff meetings a teacher suggested starting a running group after school, immediately I thought oh my gosh...NO! I hate running, I am a water girl, I can't run. Then I started to reconsider. This would be a great way to meet more people I work with and start to get back into shape, considering I really hadn't worked out since my collegiate swimming career ended in 2011. I decided it was worth the $60. We had a running coach and a 12 week Couch To 5K program designed just for the needs of our group. We started in September and our program was set for us to all run a 5K together in December.
Needless to say, it was a rough start and I wanted to quit almost every day. It was hard, especially for someone who has never run before. Everyone thought it would be easy for me. "You're the young one in the group", "You swam in college"...Let me tell you, being young and swimming in college was no help to me at all! We ran 3 days of week after school and I tried to keep up with teachers I knew, but they were just too fast for me and I ended up falling back, except I was too fast for the group behind them. I literally fell right in the middle. I suffered through the practices, but spent a lot of time crying during my runs. It seemed so easy for others, people who were a lot older than me were kicking my butt. I was dying! I think I was the most discouraged because I did end up falling in the middle of two groups and I really joined this to help find my place a work and make friends. I was the only first year teacher and one of two new teachers at a school where people come and stay forever. There were lots of ups and downs, but I went every time and tried.
I had made it through 11 weeks of training and only had one week before my first 5K. I was so proud and excited, so of course something bad had to happen (it's funny how it works that way...right). The weekend before I started to feel a little bad, but figured it was just sinuses or something. Well, it wasn't it turned out to be a full blown case of the flu. I was the first positive case of the flu at my doctors office, points for me! I was sick the whole week and as much as I wanted to run, decided it was the best choice to stay home and rest. It killed me not to be there and run the race I had been training for.
Long story short (sorry not so short). Even though I never got to run that 5K the running club really gave me the motivation to learn how to run and get started with running. Without it I never would have found this determination or even thought it would be possible for me to run. Now I am determined to run (as slow as it may be) the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February. Finding your passion and nitch when it comes to working out is hard and it took me almost two years after swimming to figure it out. But I am happy where I am now and ready for this adventure!
Needless to say, it was a rough start and I wanted to quit almost every day. It was hard, especially for someone who has never run before. Everyone thought it would be easy for me. "You're the young one in the group", "You swam in college"...Let me tell you, being young and swimming in college was no help to me at all! We ran 3 days of week after school and I tried to keep up with teachers I knew, but they were just too fast for me and I ended up falling back, except I was too fast for the group behind them. I literally fell right in the middle. I suffered through the practices, but spent a lot of time crying during my runs. It seemed so easy for others, people who were a lot older than me were kicking my butt. I was dying! I think I was the most discouraged because I did end up falling in the middle of two groups and I really joined this to help find my place a work and make friends. I was the only first year teacher and one of two new teachers at a school where people come and stay forever. There were lots of ups and downs, but I went every time and tried.
I had made it through 11 weeks of training and only had one week before my first 5K. I was so proud and excited, so of course something bad had to happen (it's funny how it works that way...right). The weekend before I started to feel a little bad, but figured it was just sinuses or something. Well, it wasn't it turned out to be a full blown case of the flu. I was the first positive case of the flu at my doctors office, points for me! I was sick the whole week and as much as I wanted to run, decided it was the best choice to stay home and rest. It killed me not to be there and run the race I had been training for.
Long story short (sorry not so short). Even though I never got to run that 5K the running club really gave me the motivation to learn how to run and get started with running. Without it I never would have found this determination or even thought it would be possible for me to run. Now I am determined to run (as slow as it may be) the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February. Finding your passion and nitch when it comes to working out is hard and it took me almost two years after swimming to figure it out. But I am happy where I am now and ready for this adventure!
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