Get off that couch and MOVE into your Groove! ☺

By the time I’d reached my forties, I had morphed into a chain-smoking, lazy couch-potato who wouldn’t go anywhere unless I could park my car right outside, or even better – inside!
Until - my then-partner had a thrombosis, a close friend had a stroke and another one had a heart attack and gave me the fear!

 

My partner M and I both gave up smoking, and started walking every evening after work. Nothing like fear to motivate your lazy bum off that couch! ☺

M is 6’4’” tall with extremely long legs, so I had to walk quickly to keep up with him.
After our first outing (which was less than 1km and accompanied by plenty of moaning from me☺), I remember getting home and collapsing exhausted on the couch!

But we kept going every evening, and it did get easier, and surprisingly to me – enjoyable. ☺
We both started looking forward to it every day.

As M got fitter, he was walking much faster, and I was really struggling to keep up with him. I’d start running for a few steps just to keep up the pace.
And I’d see runners going past me and envy them. I wanted to be able to run!
I dreamed about being like those runners in the opening scene of Chariots of Fire – running effortlessly along and enjoying myself ☺

So one day, I decided I’d do it.
I was fit from all the walking and so I thought I’d just take off and go for a run.

I told M I’d see him at the end of the promenade and set off.
I made it as far as the length of four lamp-posts, before I ran out of breath and felt like I was going to throw up and pass out! 

But the next day I did it again. Running as far as I could get to, and then slowing down to a walk until I got my breath back and running a little bit more.
In the meantime, M and I had split up, and I moved to a flat right on the beachfront.
I was traumatised by events, and my daily walk/run became therapy and still is.

Being out in the sunshine with crashing waves, flying sea spray and whales and dolphins for company really helps to get my Glow On!
I think of it as my Moving Meditation ☺

After about a year of running/walking I was chatting to a runner friend about my seeming lack of progress. I could only get to a certain point (about 200 metres), before ‘running out of steam’.
He was quite right when he said he thought it may be psychological. ☺
He said that if I could just push past that point, I’d be able to keep going.
Apparently if I was running blind-folded I wouldn’t know where that point was, and I’d run past it.

So I took his advice – and oh boy, what a breakthrough!
I ran my full distance of about 5kms without stopping. I was delighted!
I could now call myself a runner! ☺

Although, admittedly I was still struggling along and running very slowly.
Sometimes it felt like I wasn’t actually moving forward at all – I had to check the landmark next to me to make sure that I was passing it and wasn’t actually running on the spot! ☺

Everyone would overtake me as I slowly jogged along.
One morning I got caught in a World Diabetes Day Fun Run crowd on the beachfront and was overtaken by a one-legged man on crutches!

Once I was overtaken by a really good runner, who steamed full-on up what felt like a 90° hill (but is, in reality, only a slight incline!) - while I struggled, huffing and puffing to the top.
"That was really embarrassing", I said, when I eventually got there.
"I've seen worse than you", he said.
I was delighted! I wasn’t the worst! ☺

Sometimes it felt like my legs just couldn’t carry me on and I’d pretend I had wings on my back and a pair of wings on each heel, to help me ‘fly’ along. ☺
Amazingly enough, this always worked. 
I’d feel the extra power I needed to make it all the way.

I also realised that a lot of the runners who came sprinting past me couldn’t sustain their pace – I’d slowly catch up with them and notice they were walking – as I jogged past them and smiled to myself. ☺

It has taken me a few years to build up stamina, and I’ve picked up a bit of speed, but I’m still one of the slowest – and it doesn’t bother me a bit! ☺

Sometimes I bounce along feeling full of vim and vigour; sometimes I sprint as fast as I can for the sheer enjoyment of it -  and sometimes my legs feel like lead and I need to imagine my wings are powering me home. ☺

But the effects of being fit and feeling good are fantastic – and there’s no way I could go back to being a couch-potato now – in fact the very idea horrifies me.

I love knowing that I’m fit and that I CAN run. I’ve enjoyed running alone at dawn in the African bush alongside warthogs and wildebeest, and I’ve dashed right across London in the rain (smartly dressed and made-up for a posh lunch!) when there was a snarl-up with the Tube and the traffic was impossible. 

Of course you’re going to think you ‘hate exercise’ if you’re totally unfit – because it feels like hard work! Admittedly, It’s not much fun when you’re huffing and puffing and out of breath.
But once you’ve got over your phobia and built up your fitness, it’ll feel like the most natural and uplifting thing in the world – because your body is designed to move.

 
And not only will You start enjoying it – you’ll actually want to do it because it makes you feel so good!

Feeling good is addictive –  and you’ll find that once you start, you’ll want to do more of the things that make you feel good!

Here’s to rocking our fitness, enJOYing our healthiest, happiest lives and Getting our Glow On! ☺

With Love,

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• Get Your Goals On: Believe, Commit, Take Action
• Recommit to Your Goals and Live Your Most Joyful Life 
• Rock Your Self-Discipline and Wave your Magic Wand :)