I think I’ve been overweight for most of my life, at least from being a teenager. During secondary school I always remember being a size 14-16 and in the years since that has slowly gone to an 18, then 20 and now 22/24. That last bit of weight and change in dress size seems to have happened over the last 6 months (some of lockdown) and I can definitely feel it.
Although overweight I don’t think I have ever struggled too much with every day things. I don’t know whether it is the latest weight gain or the fact that I’m wearing masks more while I’m out and about but I find myself out of breath more often. It’s times like going shopping or doing the school run and I’ve never had any issues with things like this before.
About a month ago I seemed to wake up one day and wanted to do something about getting fitter, something I have never felt the need to do before. John and I have now been running for about 4-5 weeks and although we are nowhere near doing couch to 5k, we are doing better than when we first started. We do a 5 minute warm up walk, a 30 second run, a 1 minute walk and then repeat so that we do 6 runs.
Part of my issue with running, although I really like going, is that I don’t sweat. That might sound quite strange. I can definitely feel that running is doing something good for me but because I don’t want to push it too much, I don’t really sweat. It makes me feel a little bit like I’m not doing enough.
A few weeks ago I joined a local Booty Burner class with a couple of friends. We started off being two of us and then roped in someone else to come as well. The first class made me feel like I was going to die. I hurt, I ached and I swore a lot, as well as coming out of the class dripping in sweat. But, I felt pretty amazing for powering through what was extremely hard for me and doing everything I was asked to do.
For the next 3 days my legs were in agony and I barely felt like I could go up and down stairs and sitting down to pee was so painful. I didn’t let that stop me though and I’ve been back to that class every week since. Every week the class is hard but I love that I know that I’m working hard and sweating through it.
I might be fat, and I know I’m not fit but I am finally doing something about it. I don’t want to be out of breath walking down the street and I want to be able to run for more than 30 seconds at a time. It’s bloody hard but then if it wasn’t I’m not sure I would be doing it right.
Thatβs amazing that youβre both running! I wish I had that kind of motivation. I canβt even get the confidence to go to the actual gym rather than just jumping in the pool as Iβm worried Iβll show myself up!
Ah amazing you are doing it! I think you have to be ready start with any change and you sound you you both are. Lots of luck with getting a bit fitter!