Cardio? Strength Training? Classes? Where does one start?

The answer is just start. That is how my journey started. What motivated me was a small health scare. At that moment it wasn’t small. I was 24 years old and was told I had pre-cancerous cells. That required some medical procedures to remove but I should be healthy afterwards.  Well, that sounds easy enough right? Something a doctor said in passing was a lightbulb moment. Most of the time our bodies fight these cells on their own. I was borderline overweight. I didn’t understand food or dieting (Fun fact! I hate the word diet). I was not moving my body at all. Why? I didn’t know how. I had zero money to hire someone to help me. I did the only thing I was ever told would help – run – to lose weight. I went to a local park and I started.  I made it probably 10 feet before I was doubled over out of breath. I hate running remember? I stuck with it for a little while. A park was free. Then there was a health fair at my job that promoted a discount to educators to join the YMCA. I figured I needed to do more than just run. Plus, it was winter time so the daylight hours were limited so my safety was also a concern. I started going to the YMCA. All I did for a year was the elliptical. That is it. I did nothing else for an entire year. That is critical to my journey.  See I needed to build confidence of just showing up. Even though I didn’t do anything else I showed up on a regular basis for myself and no one else. After a year I moved to a new house.  That meant I had to change the YMCA location as the one I normally attended was not close to my new house. Like I mentioned in my other post I will try anything once. When I would check in they associates would encourage attending classes. They provided Les Mills classes as part of my membership. Remember this was 2012 even though googling was at our disposal it wasn’t nearly as easy as it is today. One of the classes was BODYPUMP – a total body strength workout. In high school we would occasionally lift weights. This had to be good for me. Plus – there was no running! I started out with this class, two days a week. I hid in the back corner. Let me tell you there is no shame in hiding in the back corner. I learned how to properly lift weights. I also made some lifelong friends in that same class. Once you tap into that part of your fitness journey the progress will come so much easier. I started realizing I wasn’t going to class sometimes because of the workout.  I was going to see my friends and have a social life. The workout was a bonus. That is the thing about fitness.  It doesn’t have to hard, boring, lame. Showing up is better than not showing. I only attended BODYPUMP twice a week. I wasn’t working out every day. I wasn’t working out for endless hours a week.  I started out small. For this week’s homework: Set a small goal to get started. It can be small – I am here to encourage to start. It can be as simple as taking a 10-minute walk twice a week. Just get your body moving.