Lightness and Being 10 years on

I had an interesting conversation with Lisa yesterday alluding to the fact that when you feel strong, you walk differently. I can attest for this phenomena being true - when I know that I have made improvements in whatever training I am doing, I walk taller, prouder and I feel strong. I believe this sensation comes out of a love for what we are doing...

I have always been a big believer in loving what you do - recently I have been combing through my old bookcase and came across a training log I had made and written in, circa 1998. I used to make my own training logs out of spiral notebooks and cover them with inspirational sayings and pictures. This particular training log had quotes all over it pertaining to love and particularly, love of exercise.

"Love isn't a sin, it's a necessity, for with love as our guide, we imagine our bodies moving the way our bodies were meant to move: we can do marathons with our feet, lift pounds with our arms, have stars in our eyes and do a nifty tango".

and:

"You feel funny inside. You feel funny outside. You feel you could do anything and noone would dare laugh at you."

These little quotes and bits and pieces continue to inspire me today. Here is my log from March 2000, six months after having Miss S and slowly losing weight from first pregnancy:

"Yahoo! What joy! The run I did on the treadmill this morning was awesome! I felt so strong, centred and almost invincible! What a great feeling! I have climbed one mountain and about to start on the next one!"

It was really interesting reading my journal - yes - I was trying to lose weight after childbirth, I was struggling with my eating, but page after page is littered with the joy of exercise and the feelings of accomplishment it gave me and still continues to give me 10 years on. It was once I started solving the nutrition puzzle that things really fell into place.

Even though I eat well, like most of us who live in first world countries, I have the innate tendency to want to eat well past fulfilling hunger, because the food is there and secondly it tastes fantastic. Pretty normal scenario there I would say. Over the past few months I have getting out of maintenance and into action. I've become very practised and accomplished at maintenance and all of a sudden going back into action felt really difficult. I was hungry (and baulked at the "discomfort" of it), I had to think more, I just had to do it.

After a good kick in the tush by someone in my circle of influence and upon seeing photographs of myself (yes, the camera never lies) - I have got on with the job. At the same time, I ditched the diet drinks, noticing that my consumption of these increases dramatically when I'm stressed and pretending not to be hungry. Water and tea is now rocking my world. There has been payoff, not immediate mind you (which is always hard for the "I want it now" part of my psyche) but I am looking and feeling leaner, fitter and faster and it feels good.