Birth of an Athlete

What if in the 9 months it takes the average woman to give life to a child, you could transform an overweight, asthmatic, arthritic, 41 year old into an athlete? I contemplated this thought right before Thanksgiving 2009.

After letting yet another year slip by without making any serious, permanent changes in my life to lose weight and get into shape, I thought I better start now before summer creeps up on me again. Having been sick of wearing capris or jeans in 80 degree heat and being uncomfortable in a swimsuit no matter how much coverage it provided, I knew the time to act was now.

I began by setting a goal. Something I have wanted to do for some time...learn to surf. It sounds kind of crazy considering my age, lack of athletic abilities and the fact that I live 2 hours from the closest body of water that I could actually do this in. This past August I attempted it for the first time. Let's just say it was really pathetic. With no upper body strength, maneuvering the board was almost impossible and with my arthritic knees and lack of flexibility I couldn't move fast enough to beat the waves that crashed onto me and threw me around and spit me out.

With that being the goal, I knew that I needed to set up some 'smaller' goals to accomplish this. Those smaller goals are to run a 5K in the spring and to complete a sprint triathlon in August 2010. For someone as out of shape as I am, those are pretty lofty goals. Lofty, but not impossible without a plan.

I began by getting a notebook to track my progress, state my daily goals such as how far I would run, walk, bike and swim and taped in pictures of surfers for inspiration. I found motivational quotes and added them as well. I need to keep my eye on the prize.

I chose to take a different direction in setting this goal. In the past I would say "I want to lose 20 pounds by March or 2 pounds this week. When that didn't happen I quit altogether and gave up more times than I can count. I knew that in order to succeed, this time had to be different.

The challenge to myself was to commit to the plan, accomplish my workout goals and keep looking forward. I would allow myself to weigh in once a week just to track my progress but the focus is not on weight loss. If I do what I've set out to do, weight loss will be automatic.

So my plan is see how much weight I lose by not focusing on losing weight. If I make positive changes and make regular exercise a habit I should see results. This isn't saying that I'll be eating devil dogs, ice cream and pizza while I train. I need the energy to do this so my eating habits will also improve by necessity.

For the next 9 months I'll be tracking my progress. I'm curious to see just how much weight one can lose when they put their mind to something other than dieting and losing weight.