My Journey With Health And Fitness – Why The Hell Am I Doing This

This morning was a brutal ‘power hour’ class which is a number of strength training exercises. The instructor did a whole gamut of exercises and at the end I told her she had just about talked me out of doing an 8 km run today because my legs were so tired. She said absolutely not, you are getting out there and doing that run. Of course I would have done it anyways because as I said, no excuses.

Yesterday morning the weather sucked. It was raining and you know how I hate running in the rain. That meant I was going to have to use the dreaded treadmill and I was not happy. I did a 1 hour walk before meeting my friends for coffee and afterwards hit it again for a 2 hour walk (this was the point where I learned that the treadmill turns itself off after 100 minutes). When I was at about the 90 minute mark which is when I felt I was just slogging along I saw my reflection in the garage window and thought why the hell am I doing this? For weeks now I have been walking 4+ hours a day and quite frankly I started to question why a person pushing 60 would torture themselves like this.

But then it hit me, I am doing this for me. I am doing this because keeping the weight down and fitness level up means I can stave off high blood pressure and diabetes both of which are in remission. I am doing this so that I can continue to watch my grandson grow up and I look forward to his future. I am doing this so that I can be independent and mobile for as long as absolutely possible. And, in the name of vanity, I am doing this because I look so much better when I am fit and slim.

Ok, so maybe there are some good reasons for putting myself through this. I guess those reasons must be enough because it is currently noon and I am getting ready to go and do my 4th hour of walking.