I am not a patient person. I've never been one for waiting around. So, for the last several years, I've been saying that I want to get in better shape. Also, for the last several years, I have started and abandoned workout goals with reckless abandon. This summer was a landmark, since I made my "15 miles in August" goal, but I couldn't continue it into September. Somehow, despite enjoying running and even most working out, I can't seem to make it stick.
I attribute my lack of apparent progress to my impatience. What, I didn't lose weight? But I ran 15 miles. Gosh, nothing I do is going to make my body change! I might as well be happy how I am.
However, a few days ago, I found something that has me rethinking this stance.
My senior year of high school, I had to fit in a year of PE in order to graduate. The requirement was really two years, but they waived the second year because I took so many honors classes. Still, I had to get a whole year in. This meant a whole year of dreaded "Wednesday Runs" that I naiively likened to a death march. Back then, I pudged through my 15 minute mile and couldn't stand the thought of being "sporty." This was also the year where my horseback riding knee injury (a story for another time) caught up with me.
Luckily, I had a great teacher who worked with me: Mr. Al Holmes at Inglemoor High School. I actually wrote him a letter this summer to thank him for the profound impact he made on my life, and he wrote me back saying he remembered my determination. Because of Mr. Holmes, I grew to love and appreciate the joy of running, weight lifting, and staying in shape. I worked hard, and I made real gains. I was the only girl in my second semester sports conditioning class, and I was surrounded by off-season athletes.
Mr. Holmes would tell me just to do my best; I'm a girl, and he didn't expect as much from me as from the guys. Some might view this as sexist or rude, but I took it as a challenge to beat my own goals each time we had a measuring day. During measuring day, we'd max lift, jump rope, sprint, or do situps to record on a chart. There was obviously no way I'd beat a bunch of athletes at everything, so I just worked on beating myself. I even found ways to best most of the boys; I rocked the casbah in jump-roping and situps because of my smaller body. By the end of the year, I was fairly trim and in decent shape. We're not talking marathon runner, but I was able to fit into a size 10 skirt that was shorter than any skirt I've ever owned (a feat I achieved then and only then, although I have the skirt to remind myself of where I have been -- it's blue with little daisies, and I will wear it again someday).
Anyway, back to what I found. I was looking through old CDs, and I found one of pictures from my last summer at church camp, which came after this senior year of exercise. Looking at the pictures, I realized, "wow, I looked really good." I'm not saying I don't look good now, but the difference was amazing. Reaching this state took almost an entire year of hard work, determination, and sweat. Since I've found this CD, I've been walking and running on the treadmill every day. Hopefully, this time, I've got the motivation to continue.
A few photos from camp:
Now I really miss camp. Bummer!