I read in an article just before I left New Zealand about how people on their OE get a little… lets be P.C. and say rounder. Every time I've been to the States I have put on weight, especially the extremely memorable trip a couple of years ago when I was stateside for four months. On that occasion I came home with more than just wonderful memories & great stories. Something like an extra 5 kilograms or so, maybe a few more if I try that pesky honesty thing again. This trip I am nowhere near the four month mark. Hell, we aren't even at the two month mark & already I'm not happy with what I'm seeing in the mirror or how awkward it is getting those jeans on! It has been a running joke of the trip, that every time someone sees a photo of me I am eating something, and while I've definitely been enjoying all of the amazing food, I know that I haven't been doing anywhere near enough of the other stuff, you know, the exercise and healthy eating to balance out the 'treats' I've been allowing myself.
So today I've decided. Now I know that this trip, this OE is already a game changer. I'm doing this trip for the experience, to learn new things, experience something vastly different to what I know & to grow as a person. Not to grow into a larger - fat - version of myself! Because of that I thought why not? Why not do something that if I was braver I would have admitted I wanted to try a long time ago, something that will, hopefully, "kill two birds with the one stone". Why not challenge the voice in my head telling me I can't do it, or that I'll have to admit to failure - something I hate to do, and that makes my hands clench just thinking about it. I want to "try", I have to use that works as I really am going into this one not knowing if it will work.
I want to run.
To bike for more than 5 kilometers.
At this point you might be thinking, depending on how well you know me, variations on "that isn't so hard" or "she has finally gone crazy". I know that I have done some biking over the past twelve months, but I want to be able to accomplish something that I set myself to. Be able to ride for longer than half an hour without feeling like I might die! Prove that I can set my mind to a fitness goal and achieve it. Now I know that will be easier said than done. I have asthma and I think have so often used that as a crutch over the years. An excuse to get out of things, even to myself as reasons why I shouldn't or couldn't run, or even exercise in general. I also am really good at making those excuses to myself, "You went to the gym yesterday so you don't have to today" or the one that even I don't really believe when I'm thinking it "Of course the calories from this cookie/chocolate/fried anything don't count"
Right now if I gave my all I could probably run for two minutes before having to stop, really stop, heaving for breath not just slowing down. You may think I'm underestimating things somewhat, but sadly I'm really not. I think it would be quite fitting to set the goal that, by the end of this eighteen months trip I want to be able to run eighteen kilometres. Hell I want to be able to run eighteen miles. I think that this is setting myself quite a long term goal, and again, this distance is probably something that many of you could already do, or don't consider that it would take so long to achieve. But for me, for Becky Walsh, unlikely exerciser definitely-not-extraordinaire its gonna be bloody hard work. I have started a little bit. Four days at the gym last week, but I think its probably better if I give myself an official start date. An official point that I'll put on my calendar as the day I stop trying to make fitness excuses. I think it would be kinda cool to make it November 1st. I know I'll remember it, and it gives me a fresh start in a fresh month. After all I never was one for being traditional, who wants to have a resolution at the beginning of the year anyway?
I will definitely be joining a gym and working out as many times as I can in a week, I want to try zumba and see if the personal training sessions my best friend raves about are all they're cracked up to be. I am still so excited to be getting out there and seeing as much as I can of my newly adopted homeland for the next eighteen months, but really as well as that, I want to run. To be able to try all those experiences that I would otherwise say I wouldn't be able to do. To hike, horse ride, to build the stamina and strength in my own body and be proud of what I achieve. Even if after all that I still feel like those damn pants don't look as good as they should, well I just don't know, I hope I will still be pretty damn proud of myself!
So what do you think guys? Achievable or have I really bitten off more than I can chew this time? Either way I'm pretty excited for the next few months!
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