in terms of fitness/health, i'm probably the queen of "falling off the wagon" (and staying off it for a long time!)
Here's my story:
Basically, starting in 2000 I got serious about fitness and would visit a gym regularly (3x a week). Then in 2003, I got *seriously* into long-distance running (I wasn't good at it by any means, but I enjoyed it and would go for runs everyother day). I ran my first 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) in 2003, and with that I started getting motivated to run a full marathon. I did do one eventually, in April 2005 when I ran the Boston Marathon (in case anyone's interested, my time was 5:06, bad but i finished it!
). I did it with Team & Training to raise $$ for leukemia research. I managed to raise $4,000 for the cause (woo!) and complete my training with almost no problems.
After the marathon, i still did keep up the running somewhat, but then i stopped running once I moved to Japan for the summer. Even though there I didn't exericse much at gyms, I did walk A LOT (everyone uses public transportation or bikes there), so I stayed somewhat in shape. I even climbed to the top of Mount Fuji (in one night!). Geez, even thinking about it now i'm amazed that I could do that! Now I get winded from climbing ONE flight of stairs, for pete's sake
I guess what happened was that a bit after that (December 2005), I started getting pains in my ankle/knees, and I quit running for the most part. Then I got caught up/busywith my thesis work (i was still in grad school at the time), and planning my wedding (got engaged March 2006) and so I never managed to get back to regular workouts/running schedules. In May 2007 I finally defended my thesis and graduated (woo) but shortly after that I got caught up in our cross-country move. Then of course it took a while to adjust to life here in LA (where, unlike Boston, NO ONE walks apparently, everything you have to drive to) and a new job as well. And then of course there was our wedding preparation, which was hard to do as our wedding was in out-of-state (in DH's home town). Finally our wedding (in October 2007) was over, and we told ourselves that we REALLY needed to start working out again (DH was often my running partner, he has also ran a marathon himself). But no...we never got back on the wagon, always made excuses that we were too tired, too busy, etc. Well months went by, and to be quite honest,
I haven't gone for a run or done a serious gym workout in TWO YEARS. OMG!! If you had told me that 5 years ago, I would have FLIPPED...I couldn't go two WEEKS w/o workout back then.
anyways it is really quite sad, actually, as now I get almost NO exercise at all (except for walking while shopping at the various malls here, LOL). It hasn't affected my weight much (i still weigh 130 lbs), but the lack of exercise does affect my stress level A LOT. For me, running was such a good stress reliever. So I KNOW that it's all good for me, but it's just so HARD to get back on the wagon! It's quite discouraging when you can't even run ONE mile when you used to be able to run 26. ARGGH.
sorry for the long post! i just saw "falling off the wagon-confession time" and i thought "if ANYONE's fallen off the wagon, it's me!!" LOL
For those of you who've fell off the wagon - confession time!!
Bad me!! But it's off my shoulders and I'm letting it go and I'll run tomorrow!
