The Journey: my inspiration part 1

I always imagined that I would be able to be independent for decades to come.  My Grandma Rhyner has always been my role model for this.  She was always busy, always doing things, accomplishing things that she enjoyed.  She sold Avon for decades (like 6 of them) and she sewed.  She took in sewing during the depression to supplement the family's income.  She could make a winter coat for a woman by just taking her measurements.  And she lived in Green Bay, WI so when she made a winter coat, it had to be warm and really stand up to the elements. She would take the measurements, make a pattern, then make the coat. Later in life, she mostly sewed quilts.  She made quilts for everyone in the family.  Between me and my kids, I think we still have close to a dozen Great-Grandma quilts around the house.  And she donated quilts to the missions.  She was the roll lady at the Cathedral in Green Bay for decades.  Meaning she was in charge of arranging the coffee and rolls after masses.  I admired her because she found things she liked to do and did them.  She enjoyed her life and she was productive and charitable.  And in my late teens and twenties, I loved sitting at her dining room table or in her sewing room, chatting for hours.  Her generosity was admirable but what impressed me was  she lived at home, taking care of herself until she was 86 years old.  The last couple of months, things were a bit more difficult but still she could take care of herself.  She got sick just a couple of months after my daughter was born and died just a couple of weeks later.    I was happy that my daughter was able to lay in her arms for a while before she left us but I was so sad that she was gone.

My goal was to live like my Grandma.  She did her own laundry in her basement laundry room until she died. The first Avon order she missed in nearly 60 years was due the day she died. She could do all the everyday things she needed to.  So when I started noticing that, at 52, I couldn't kneel as easily as I thought I should be able to or get up as quickly and easily as I wanted, I knew that living as independently as Grandma had was not going to be possible if I didn't do something soon.  I had two choices:  give up on a goal that I've had for more than half my life or get to work and make some major changes.  I'm choosing to make changes.  Thanks for reading about my journey.  My hope in sharing this journey is that you will find the motivation within yourself to make the changes needed to be a healthier version of yourself.  So don't just read what I'm doing, if you need to make some changes, join me on this journey.  Leave a comment below so we can encourage each other.  

The Journey Begins

The journey that I am referring to here is my journey to fitness.  Somehow, one day I woke up and was 52, overweight, and pathetically out of shape.  If I'm going to divulge the negatives, I will allow myself to brag a bit.  I do walk for an hour 5 mornings a week with my husband and our dog.  These are not strolls through the neighborhood:  there is sweat and the heart rate is increased.  I can still pick up the 55 pound bag of dog food from the pallet at Sam's Club, put in the cart and get it into the car by myself.    And I have not, as yet, had to go to any specific plus sized stores or departments.  My blood work has always come back in the good or OK range.  No prescriptions at this time. So for a while, it was easy to pretend I was doing OK.

If you have read this blog over time, you know that I've lost both my parents already.  Each of them had significant health issues.  Some issues just were the "luck of the draw" so to speak, while others were definitely the result of lifestyle decisions and perhaps a bit of denial.  I was blessed to spend a lot of time with my parents as their health declined.  One piece of insight from that time, is that you can only fool yourself and others for only so long about being in shape or being healthy.  At some point, the facade will start crumbling and the only thing left is the truth.

So even while I was happy with the results of the blood work, I knew I couldn't ignore the decrease in my strength and ability to do things I had always done.  I lettered in sports 5 times in high school and three times in college.  I hiked mountains in Europe.  Now it was almost embarrassing to admit that I had been an athlete.  I could not do a real, touch the floor genuflect in church without holding onto a pew, kneeling down and getting up while gardening took a bit too much effort, standing from the middle cushion of a deep couch took too much effort and had to be almost comical to watch while I pretended that I was handling it effortlessly.  And let's not talk about stairs, especially if I was carrying things. I couldn't pretend any longer.  I had to do something.

But what to do?  I knew enough to know that I didn't know enough to do it on my own. I had walked away from my job so there wasn't much (or any) disposable income sitting around for a gym and a good trainer.   That's where I was in my fitness journey one evening when my daughter called for a chat.  She is an athletic trainer and graduate assistant working toward her master's degree in exercise science.  Fortunately for me she is taking exercise prescription this semester and needed a volunteer for  a case study.  This was it!  I was so excited that I would have someone who actually knew what she was doing and could get me back to being able to do everything I wanted to.  I immediately volunteered to be the subject of her case study.

So that was step one.  A journey of a thousand miles, right?  I'm excited to say that we've taken the next couple steps and those posts will be coming in the near future.  Is it easy? NO!! Am I more than a little annoyed with myself for getting this weak and out of shape?  Absolutely!  But you know what?  I am pretty stinking proud of myself for admitting that I needed to make changes and acting on that.  What are you ignoring or pretending doesn't need to change?  Today could be the start of a thousand miles for you.