Starting and Stopping

“it starts stopping when it stops stopping” – Ben Kweller

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you here.  Well, its to have an intervention.  For myself.

I’m fat.  There.  I said it.
I’m out of shape.
I was a smoker.  Emphasis on the was. 

The good news for you is that I took it upon myself to start fixing things, but we all know I am a serial starter.  I start things and I never finish them.  Sewing.  Blogging.  Diets.  Exercise.  Crafts.  I’m a Serial Starter.

I smoked my last cigarette on January 10, 2013 at 7:30AM.  Who’s counting though, right?  About three hours after that, when I typically go on my break at work, I had to find something to do with myself.

I got up from my desk and I started walking.  I went out the door, around the building, around the block and before I had realized it, I had walked an entire half a mile in about 10 minutes.

This is when the proverbial light bulb went off.  If I’m walking instead of smoking, I’m multi-tasking.  I’m doing something good for my body so I don’t do something bad for my body.

great scott!!!

On Sunday I bought myself a brand new pair of real life running shoes.  Not shoes that are cute or jazzy.  Running shoes.  For running.  When I got home, I laced them up and hit the pavement.  The only issue with this is that I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.  I mean, the last time I did any running it was probably off of a football field in high school.

Nobody told me that you should start off slow and that it’s OKAY to start off slow.  I ran right out of the gate.  My runkeeper app told me to do a warm up.  I heard warm up and translated that to “light jog” so by the time my 1.5 miles rolled around, I was sucking wind like it was my job.

I guess at this point I should tell you I’m “training” to do a 5K, except my trainer is an app that lives in my phone.  The app is set up to tell me when and how to run or walk.  I’ll train every other day for 8 weeks, and by the Grace of God, I’ll be able to actually run (RUN) a 5K.

So that’s why I’ve called you here.  I’m going to rely on you, Internets to help me through this.  I’ll post about the struggles of quitting nicotine.  I’ll talk about the running, but probably mostly the mishaps and how bad I suck at it.  I’ll write about funny things and sad things too, I’m sure.  I’ve got a lot going on in this head of mine and I think it’s best I start writing it all down again.