One problem with using a laptop: The other laptop aka the cat, gets jealous. The only way I can type right now is stretched out in a recliner so the cat can use my chest...ouch, if only she would stop kneading me...
I feel so great today. What a change...
Last week I was very depressed. My therapist and family doctor have both suggested I might be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, to which I replied with some skepticism, nahhh... I can be miserable any old time of the year... but maybe they're right. I was having some trouble last year in January, so maybe... anyway, the antidepressants got bumped up today. But that's not why I'm feeling so good.
Two months ago I joined a beginners running group. The coaches are a couple of kinestheologists who run their own gym. My friend has been working with one of them as her personal trainer for several years and is always singing his praises. She's 58 and wants to still be downhill skiing when she's 80. The whole world of physical fitness is completely foreign to me. Actually, not any more. I was never physically active. I was a fat kid and my parents were too busy working to do anything like that so I just never got into it. To give you an idea of how inactive I was, I never learned how to skate, practically a crime in Canada!
Over the last ten years this has been slowly changing. At age 44 I am in the best shape of my life. I started out walking, and then after a few years, joined a gym and experimented with lifting very light, then heavier weights. As I became involved with Overeaters Anonymous, I started losing weight in a healthy manner, getting emotional support and encouragement that the universe wanted me to be healthy and happy.
My friend told me how the runners were starting very easy, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, etc.. I thought, "Well, I can do anything for just 2 minutes!" So I tried it. Ok, not bad, 2 minutes can seem like a very long time but I was with 4 other women who were in the same boat, and kept me going. The trainer was very encouraging, and taught us how to run so that it didn't hurt! I had been worried about my knees --- I had tried running at the local Terry Fox Cancer run the year before, and my knee started to really hurt after about 1 k enough that I had to walk the rest of the route. He taught me that my stride was too long, I was unbalanced, putting pressure on my knees, and unlike walking, I had to keep my heels up! So far so good, no pain, and lotsa gain.
Fast forward 2 months to last night: The weather was pretty awful. Pouring rain, but at least it was very warm for late November here. We would get soaked, but not frozen. Only 2 of us showed up, and at first we thought it wasn't going to happen, but the advanced group (a nice bunch of extremely fit people and they really encourage us newbies) all showed, so the trainers said, ok, it's a go. We went out and it was ok, but the trainer said, right, we'll try something different tonight, but I'm not going to tell you what, we'll just run and see how we feel. The week before we had tried 4 minute runs. Well, we ended up running the whole route, about 5 km and weren't exhausted! The trainer kept our steps light and our speed manageable.
I am on top of the world. I never really thought I could do it, I was always the person who said I would never run, not unless something that wanted to eat me was chasing me or vice versa! I am amazed. Amazed. When I feel overwhelmed and as if my whole life has been a mess, I have to remember these things.
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