Words from the Wise

I read a lot of blogs written by active people, many of whom are former couch potatoes. So much inspiration, so much wisdom. I read a few things recently that resonated with me so strongly that  I've gotta share them -  

Sarah - training for her first half-marathon -

Losing weight is hard. Being fat is hard. Pick your hard.

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Given the choice of {hard + rewarding} versus {hard + depressing} - well, that seems like a no brainer now - but damn, it was hard getting started on this journey. Wish I'd read this a few years ago.

Jed - former couch potato turned Ironman -

We didn’t get in marathon shape before we signed up [for our first marathon]. We signed up and then said “oh crap, we better get in marathon shape.” If you don’t commit, too many things will come up and you have the opportunity to create to many excuses. I wouldn’t do a 20 mile run or a 100 mile bike to just get in shape, but if I have a race coming up I will get those workouts in... Haven’t got off the couch in 5 years? Sign up for a 5k. Walk the entire thing if you need to. But signing up will give you a reason and motivation to get off the couch and moving.

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You said it, Jed. Signing up for my first few events helped to give my trips to the gym purpose ("Can't skip tonight's workout, I have that 5K coming up"), and along the way helped me to stretch my thinking about just how much I may be capable of...which in turn got me to sign up for more events...and so of course I had keep on training. That try-a-tri I want to do next summer? Guess I'd better sign up for those stroke improvement classes and do some brick training over the fall/winter/spring. I'd never bother with either of those if I was just looking to get exercise.

Alex - recently celebrating 100-lbs of weight-loss -

When somebody sees you after a significant weight loss it seems like the only thing they can say to you, “you look so amazing.” The person saying it doesn’t realize that what we hear is: “You don’t need to lose anymore weight.”... We have to learn to prevent ourselves from ever thinking we are done. Losing weight is not a license to go eat an entire bag of potato chips and down a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi. Well, unless you want to lose 100 lbs all over again. There really is no “done” when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. There’s only a “next”.

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This one hit close to home. Lots of kudos = swelled head = celebrate with cookies! And chocolate! And pizza! Grrrrroannnnn - I needed this reminder.

What about you - read anything recently that resonated strongly with you?

Here's this week's recap: 

Saturday -  6K round trip on the bike to the Farmer's Market. Later, cleaned the house - for hours and hours and hours. Sigh.

Sunday - More cleaning, then had friends over for a BBQ. Great friends, great time. And the house was clean!

Monday - Curves + 22 pushups after dinner

Tuesday - An evening out with my two favourite Daves (thanks to Jewls for babysitting!):
 

My husband...

 

...and Dave Grohl. Hello there, so nice to see you again ;-)

Wednesday - Rest day. Took the kids to the school playground in the evening.

Thursday - Zumba + once around the circuit + 24 pushups after dinner. And then I tried this:

Not the world's most flattering picture - but who cares? LOOK AT WHAT I CAN DO!!!

The last time I tried this was 3 years ago, and I could barely get my legs in the air at all. Seriously. Major NSV!!!!

Friday - Rest day. Took the kids to High Park for the evening.

What I'm reading this week - Reread The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, then started The Secret Daughter by Shilpa Somaya Gowda.