How it all began

I wanted to share with you all how I went from doing 20 minutes on the Wii to running 1.5 miles. First of all I wasn't planning on it for sure. I wanted to challenge myself to do something good for my health. They say exercise is good for the heart and since my Grandmother died of heart disease at 63 I know it is something I need to be careful of. In the long run I do not feel I need to workout everyday, but since it is not something I am use to fitting into my life, I wanted to be diligent about it at first and get myself to the place where I actually craved it. (I always heard people say that but had never experienced that before...in fact I hated working out!)

So I started out doing the Wii and I liked it. I am not sure if it's because I am in a different place in my life (4 kids and homeschooling) or what, but I immediately noticed the release of stress I got from just 20 minutes of exercise. I never felt that way after exercising before. It also helped me to feel good about myself. The down side of the Wii most of the time was having my kids right there with me. So it wasn't a break. Then one weekend while away at the homeschool conference I got the opportunity to work out with my uber inspirational friend Carrie for a whole hour. A whole hour! No kids around. Just Carrie, me and a couple treadmills. It was awesome and I felt SO GOOD. So rather then the Wii I did my best to make it work for me to go to the YMCA. Checked the kids into childcare and I fell in love with the elliptical.

Family vacation time rolled around and there is no YMCA at my campgrounds so I knew I had to figure out something different. When I arrived my camping buddy Kayla told me about this great trail that her and her sister went **wogging on earlier that morning. I thought "perfect, now I know how I will get my exercise (and a break) and I hate running but I could probably wog.

So that evening off I set on the trail. Just like Kayla suggested I walked up the trail a little over a 1/2 mile and when I turned to go back I started to jog. I figured I would just do a bit and see how it goes. Much to my amazement I ran not just back to where the trail began but back to my campsite!!! I was SHOCKED and it wasn't as horrific as I thought running could be. The next day I went a little bit further and the next day a little further.

I am now running almost everyday. Some days are tougher then others and I don't always love every moment of it but God is doing a work on me. But that's for another post that is already in the works.

So that's how it all began. I leave you with the words of a famous runner whom I felt a bit like I could relate with since I never really planned on running. (can you guess who he is?)

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road, and when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason, I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured since I've gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. 

** Wogging: Walking and jogging