So I was suffering from IT Band syndrome the other day and decided to throw all my shoes in the trash....well, the local charity recycle box, not so much the trash. For some reason, whenever I get an ounce of knee pain I have to have a total shoe makeover.
You see, I'm a runner. I like to run. I can't run fast so I have decided to shift my focus to running long. Running long requires little to no higher intellectual function. It's not a team sport where if you lose focus a basketball hits you in the face thrown by a team mate who would never ever throw it to you because they know you would muck it up, and only threw it to you because you were the absolute absolute last open player on the field put into the game when the very last available player got fouled out.
Running long only requires that you put one foot in front of the other over and over again, eat properly and maintain hydration. Sounds simple right? Well for the most part those are simple concepts, yet they seem time and time again to foil the most expertly laid plans by the most highly trained individuals.
I guess I should tell you what led me to running in the first place. Just to give you a frame of reference. because it seems the proper thing to do, considering we just met.
I never ran when I was a kid or a teenager, I did not run track in high school, I did not run races and 5K's with overly health conscious parents and I was not a sport pursuing individual. I would start a sport because my friends were doing it, then realize I was failing miserably, then drop out in the middle of the season...because I usually got hit in the face with the ball. I went to a small Catholic school that had limited resources and coaches that had little or no patience to actually teach a kid how to play a sport.
In high school I lacked the upper body strength to hit a free throw in PE, or to serve a volley ball over the net. I was scared of the ball so much the opposing team would make a point to server it at me for guaranteed score. My teammates hated me and I would look at the PE teach and tell her, "I don't play sports for a reason".
Thank goodness in college you get to play golf, and take ballet for Physical education. Fortunately, dance classes taken during my childhood kept me some what fit in spite of my total dysfunction in sports. I took an array of dance classes in college for fulfill my Phys Ed credits. Thank goodness for college!!!
After dance classes and biology classes and some physics and chemistry I graduated with a degree in Environmental Heath Sciences and went out in the world to start my career. Bought a house, started working the 8 to 5 and that is where the significant weight gain started.
So I was never a tiny person. I always had a little extra meat on me growing up but never out of my weight range. During my early working days I stopped dance classes and my weight go a little high. I was up to 150 on a 5foot frame....too big. Trust me, I have the photos (some place) to prove it.
After settling into my career and my home I restarted my love for dance and went back to my childhood dance studio. I quickly got back into the groove of tap, jazz and ballet and put into the advanced class. I was not losing any weight, since the duration and vigor of the classes was not enough to work off the lunches out with co workers and home cooked dinners I loved to fix. Then upon getting a glimpse of the recital costume I was to wear in June ( it was December) I decided I was much too large to wear the shimmery lemay, low rise, crop top one shoulder number our teacher had picked out for us. I was 32 years old in a class where I could out dance 17 year olds. But I was too fat to look good in the costume and that fact alone, made my life choice obvious. I had to do something.
The Internet is great. with just a few keystrokes I was served the grim reality, the dirty truth, the words that I have refused to describe my self as ....because I was in denial. ...."Overweight"...BMI calculator says...."Overweight" Solution. "Decrease calorie intake by 200 calories per day to lose 20 lbs in 5 months". So .....there ya have it...my motivation....and solution in with just a few keystrokes....
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