Day 1

August 25, 2010. Not a particularly important day.

Just the day I decided to change my life. Specifically, my health.

I'm not particularly unhealthy, mind you. But each day, I feel just a tiny bit less healthy than the day before. Sure I have good days and I have bad days. Sometimes I wake up and my back is ***killing*** me. It takes an hour or so of moving around to work that out. Other days I wake up with no backache at all. Go figure.

The unnerving part is the general overall feeling that I am not getting any younger, and this is not going to get any better unless I make a committed decision, and act on that decision, to make some serious changes.

My meals aren't very healthy, I generally don't exercise, and my body is starting to tell me about it. I'm at my heaviest weight and most sedentary lifestyle, and I'm only 43 years old.

It's not that I'm lazy, I'm just busy, and taking care of my health has sorta dropped off the priority list. Now, in my 40's, I'm aware that I'm approaching the higher risk stage of life for things like heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes, and all that stuff that my parents had to cope with.

I'm not ready for that. I don't think I ever will be. And the thing is, I know people much older than myself who are in far superior shape to me. It makes me feel....well, honestly it makes me feel a bit ashamed, and on a deeper level it makes me feel a bit angry with myself for letting things get to this point.

Oh, I've had excuses. I have a husband and children. I have an elderly Mom and In-laws, who've needed help. I have a house and a yard and all the fun stuff that goes with it. I've had pneumonia twice in the last 10 years, that left me breathless for months afterward. I fell once and hurt my back. I went to night school for 10 years to get a bachelor's degree.

All important and serious things that have taken time and attention, and rightly so.

And while all of those things have been going on, I've paid very little attention to my health. And now it's caught up with me.

So, no more excuses. I'm not going to wait until I have a heart attack, like my Dad.

I'm not going to wait until my doctor gives me some rotten news.

I'm starting today. Right now, at 3:06pm in the afternoon. It's not a Monday. It's not the first of the month. It's not a New Year's Resolution. It's my life. And I want to spend the rest of it, a very long, long time of it, being healty, fit and active.

I remember what it felt like to have loads of energy and feel the adrenaline rush of a 3-mile run, or to get out of bed in the morning and have nothing hurt or stiff.

I want that back. And I'm going to document it here.

And if anyone chooses to read this and/or follow it, welcome! I hope to learn a few things and pass them on. Feel free to comment.

Starting weight: 155lbs.