Diary of a SubUrban Housewife

It Begins With the First Step

You know, it's absolutely mind boggling to me how quickly one can get out of shape.

OK, it's not like I was ever a major buns and abs of steel hardbody, but since the first of the year Chuck and I have been diligently going to the gym--6 days a week thankyouverymuch. And I'd like to point out that things were shaping up nicely.

Then that little thing with the drug test came up and a lot of what I read said to stop exercising because you don't want to burn fat and release any THC that is stored in your fat cells, so until I passed my drug test I was off gym detail.

Chuck remained faithful in my slackitude and every night during my abstinence period would ask me whether I was going to the gym and I'd have to remind him that I couldn't work out because of my drug test and he'd give me that look that screams, "you're such a pot head."

Well then came vacation and well....there's no exercising on vacation--and of course I still had that drug test to look forward to.

And then we came home from vacation and I took the stupid drug test and passed, but somehow didn't manage to get my sorry ass back to the gym. Chuck had also used our vacation break to join me in my slackitude, and like me, had not managed to muster the energy to get back to the gym.

Well, then I signed up for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk (yes, another shameless plug). I have to walk a marathon--26.2 miles, over the course of two days.

Now I know for some of you (read GraceDavis here), you say pishaw. Walk a marathon. Over two days. Ha! Piece of cake.

But as you just read of my nearly two months of, yes, slackitude, I know you'll understand that this is a major thing.

So major in fact that though I didn't get to the gym last weekend I spent a lot of time researching what kind of training I needed to do. (Because you know, using the internets to research something is the next best thing to actually doing it.)

And I found a training program that I think will be just perfect for me. It's extremely do-able. Even for me, Queen of Slackland.

So tonight I grabbed my Shuffle with the primo treadmill disco mix on it and went back to the gym. And I started my new program. I had to walk three miles. Piece of cake. Well, normally a piece of cake. I do not have to break any land speed records here, just find a good pace I can maintain.

Well, it would have been a piece of cake had I not been wearing the socks from hell that kept bunching up, and right when I'd be ready to pause and fix them, they would magically get better, until I'd made some progress when they would bunch again. (The socks went in the trash when I got home from the gym.)

And it would have been a piece of cake had I not spent the last two months being an example to the royal subjects of Slackland on how make any muscle tone and endurance you've built up turn right back to jello.

But alas, I had sock issues and slacking issues.

So it was a long three miles.

But with every step I took I had my eye on my goal. Knowing that the walking I was doing was bigger than myself.

So I took my first steps tonight. And though, as I said, it was a long three miles, I look forward to Thursday night and the next three miles.

Posted by beth at May 3, 2005 10:43 PM