The Kickoff

Welcome to the Hard Slog! This blog will (hopefully) chronicle my own personal slog, on a journey from lazy, fat slacker to thin not-so-slackerish person. Along the way, I'll share my fitness insights, trials, tribulations, and eventual triumphs. I also might branch out and talk about the rest of my life, but that remains to be seen.

The beginning: this is lucky for me personally, but not so lucky in the dramatic sense, but I'm not actually obese. My BMI says I'm definitely overweight, but I haven't crossed the dreaded Obesity Line yet, and I don't have to buy plus-size clothes or anything. At the same time, I am overweight, and I can't wear a lot of the fun things I want to wear. I'm only 25, this should be the peak of my physical fitness, not the low point of a decline that began when high school (and my athletic life) ended. While I haven't been happy with myself for a while, it didn't really get bad until this last year or so, when I started spending all my time with a certain boy, and going to diners and eating lots of yummy Eggs Benedict or cheeseburgers instead of staying home and cooking vegetables. It was great! We must have gone to almost every breakfast place in our medium-sized city, not to mention quite a few non-breakfast places. I like dessert as much as anyone, and I should learn to love salad at normal meals more than I do, but breakfast is truly my Achilles heel. It's just so good! All of it! And it's breakfast, so it must be okay, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Right? And anyway, going out to brunch is a special occasion, a time to relax, drink some coffee and quibble over the crossword... you can't sully a happy time like that by listening to that nagging little calorie-counter in the back of your head, can you? That would just be giving in to society's unreasonable expectations for women. I mean, who would criticize my boyfriend for having the full breakfast special? Why should there be a double standard just because he has a better metabolism?

That relationship has been over for a while now, and it finally hit me recently that I am offending myself. I mean, this is my body, I should be taking better care of it. And since I am still adjusting to the sudden free time and the lack of brunch invites, I thought I'd better just strike while the iron is hot and make a real, permanent change in my habits. Build regular exercise into my post-high school, post-college life.

The challenge? Well, it's been a while, and I am really out of shape. I smoke like a chimney, which seems like a good reason not to run. Also, I am not making much money right now, so I can't really afford to spend a whole lot on gym memberships and equipment, and I'll have to make do with what's available to me, which is:

• One pair running shoes- decent, but I'll need new ones if I start running regularly.
• One exercise ball and DVD with horrifyingly intense exercise ball workout.
• One Pilate's DVD, also very challenging.
• A yoga mat and some of those stretchy things with the handles.
• A once-a-week Krav Maga class, which I have been doing for about a month now, and which is wonderful. I have really missed that endorphin rush! But I can only afford once a week, so it isn't really enough.
• A very small apartment in which to do these DVDs (I have to rearrange the furniture to even try it, and then if it involves motion I tend to run into the wall).
• A bike.
• Two little hand-weights (5 lbs., I think).
• This blog, which, because it's public, will hopefully guilt me into continuing to work out.

So here goes! If anyone out there is reading this, and if you have any suggestions for sustainable routines for the ludicrously out-of-shape, please chime in!