A Healthy Journey Begins

I know a lot of people are using the word "journey" to talk about a lot of things right now. Today I want to talk to you about my journey. This will be the first in a series of posts as this is a long story to tell and one that is still in progress.

This is not a story of weight loss, though that is part of the story, it is not the focus. This is not a story of being skinny or thin. Healthy does not equal skinny. Being fit does not mean losing massive amounts of weight. Being healthy is more than just what you put in your mouth or how many burpees you can do or what size jeans you wear. This is my story of how I am getting healthy.

(This is Onyx. He is not on a journey. But he likes it when I put pictures of him in my blogs.)

Health and fitness is something we all work on everyday. Some of us work harder than others and for some of us it's easier than for others. Many people have huge obstacles and hurdles in their way; be it financial, disabilities and disease, or simply a lack of motivation. Everyone is different.

I've seen a crap ton of fitness and healthy quotes and some of them are really awesome, and some are really stupid. But one that stands out for me as really cheesy and true is that fitness is a journey, not a destination. I don't know who originally said that and I don't know where I originally saw that so I can't credit the source here, but that's not the point. The point is, is that I didn't really get that until now. Seriously, like in the last week or so I've really been thinking about that statement and it's never been more clear to me. 

I have struggled with fitness since I was a little kid. A lot of kids around me were into playing sports and being active. Me? I was totally content to hang out inside with my toys and not get sweaty or deal with bugs. As I got older, I still didn't really care about participating in sports because that would have required interaction with others and I wasn't super in to that. Once I was in my late teens and early twenties I decided I wanted to "get in shape" and tried various magazine workouts and bought a couple of workout DVDs from Target to help me get fit. 

In college I worked out pretty hardcore, but didn't really do anything else to support my healthy lifestyle. I drank a lot and ate like total crap, but I was 23 so my metabolism was working in my favor. I am now 34 and my metabolism is looking at me like "Pay back is a bitch, eat those fries, I dare you." And when I look back at pictures of me from that time period I am not as fit-looking as I thought I was. I am not saying I look bad, I just am not as defined as I felt (or remember feeling). 

Then I entered the professional work force and went from one desk job to the next. I gained some weight and then would decide to eat better and would lose a pound here and there. Then I decided I didn't care and ate whatever I wanted and screw eating salad. 

A couple of years ago I had started working out more, but not really quite eating as healthy as I should have been and I lost a little weight due to increased activity. Then we moved into a new house and had all kinds of other things going on in my life and eating healthy kind of took a back seat. I felt fine, I was tired and stressed, but I felt like that was normal. I wasn't paying any attention to my weight, but I knew that some of my clothes were feeling tighter than normal and just thought, well I'm over 30 now so this is what happens.

But it's not what happens. Why should I have to accept that because I am now 30 that it will just be down hill from here? People over 30 can be healthy and fit right?! Why not me?