Sunday, January 1, 2012

Universe, I put in my order...


I've been singing this song in my head since I wrote the last post.
It's prophetic in a way. I have nowhere to run and hide, not now that I have put this out here in cyberspace... 
but I do have somewhere to run to.

You see.. this is me



and this is who I want to be.


I have long dreamed of the life I want to have; I have read The secret, watched Oprah, made vision boards and 'put it out there'.
Of the many things I told the universe that I wanted, one was a life where I was fit and healthy, where I would get up in the mornings and go for a run along the water before work.
Problem was, I was obese*, lazy, undisciplined.. the list really could go on. 
I told the universe what I wanted, and sat back and expected it to come to me.  The universe (or God if you prefer that name) is amazing and can provide the most awesome things, but you need to do the work to recieve the rewards.

You would have heard the story, and if you have read or seen Eat Pray Love, by Liz Gilbert you would know the following anecdote 

So, I hadn't even realised that since I originally 'put in that request' with the universe in 2006, 5 years later I am living in a house which is less than 100m from a lake with an awesome 4km track around it that I could run every morning. The universe had fulfilled my request, all that was missing was me.
As much as I want it, I have to do it, no one can do it for me. I needed to get up every morning and buy a ticket for the life I asked for... and for goodness sake the ticket is free.  What the hell was i waiting for?

At 101 kilos (the heaviest i got - that I know of) starting to run is a bit daunting. I couldn't do it. My body didn't want to. It hurt, and cried and pleaded to stop every time I tried. 
The truth is I hated exercise, and would avoid it an any cost.
Excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse....
Then the universe gave me a helping hand.  It gave me Zumba.
It took me about 8 weeks of saying I was going to give it a try, before I actually got brave enough to walk into that hall on my own and try a class!


That was the first day of the rest of my life.
Moving my body to music, ...they call it dancing, ... is exercise, and I loved it.  I was buzzing from the first class, I was uncorordinated, unfit, sweating, puffed, but it was ok.. the music pulled me through. 
An hour once a week, quickly became not enough, increased to two, then three.  
I felt different. I joined in on a workplace challenge to increase activity, and started walking the lake to increase my 'minutes' of activity.
Before i knew it Zumba had me fit enough to actually try running, starting at a certain mark on the track, and each time trying to improve on that if only even a few steps.


The route around the lake - I have increased my run to 

So there we have it! The universe has given me my request, and I hadn't even realised. I am running around the lake.  I have a long way to go to reach my goals...which you will hear about tomorrow.


*World Health Organisation says a BMI greater than 30, is in the Obese category.

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