Jennerosity

Before reading this article, please close your eyes and envision me doing a fitness activity.  It can be running, kick boxing, lifting weights, the exact activity doesn’t really matter.  Got a clear picture in your head?  Good.

Now why did I ask you to do this?  Well, I try to include visuals with my blog, but despite searching through all my uploaded Flickr images, I couldn’t find any of me at any fitness event or doing anything particularly fitness-y.  Which is weird because both Benevolance and I have done all sorts of fitness stuff in the past.  The closest thing I could find to a fitness related picture was one of me posing in a lightish-red hip scarf and my lightish-red shirt¹ that I wore to belly dancing class.  And this is someone who has supposedly done the Vancouver Sun Run 4 times!²

On the bright side of things, this inability to find any pictoral evidence of my fitness abilities has given birth to a new fitness goal – start documenting fitness accomplishments with photos!  Now, part of me resists this because my fitness clothing is not really flattering.  I don’t shop at Lululemon and I don’t usually concern myself with style when I’m doing a workout.  Yes, I’ve even been known to mix peach and red together, which is not a flattering combination.  Plus, there’s the fact that I don’t wear makeup to workout and am quite often covered in sweat.  This is a good thing when you’re concerned with fitness, but doesn’t make me look particularly photogenic.  And then there’s the red-face issue.  I get very bright red in the face when I work out.  I always have, and probably always will.  But, it’s a little shocking to see a person who is normally so pale, go bright red.  It looks a little clown-ish.

But, I really should get past all of that, and start taking pictures.  Or rather, start getting other people to take pictures of me doing things.  And, by logical extension, this means I’ve got to start getting out and doing fitness things (again).  I’ve devolved into a bit of a couch potato, but my health and fitness is something that is really important to me.  Despite that, I haven’t been able to set any really concrete fitness goals for myself this year.  Last year I had a similar problem and didn’t feel like I progressed much at all.  This year, I’m tossing a few options around in my head, but a lot of the fitness programs out there, don’t last an entire year.  I had started working on my running last year just before switching to the P90X program, but we’ve just discovered that our treadmill may be on its last treads. ³  Probably won’t get around to repairing or replacing it until March when we’re back from Japan.  And though I know I could run outside, I’m a really big wimp and have a lot of reasons why I’d rather not. ⁴ So, in the mean time, I’ve got to figure out what I want to do and here are my thoughts so far:⁵

• Start working on the Lifetime Fitness Ladder⁶
• Complete a 90 day Peak Condition Project⁷
• Complete another 90 day P90X program⁸
• Get rid of soda & pop from my diet (again)
• Prepare more meals at home (including lunches)
• Eat less, but more frequently
• Integrate more yoga
• Begin meditating
• Do some sort of push-up/sit-up/squat/chin-up challenge

So, my dear readers, care to share your fitness goals?  Thoughts?  Advice?  Any and all are welcome in the comments!

1. I really need to add the Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow! shirt to my collection too! [↩]
2. And the last two times I even tried to look for the official event photographers who take pictures to sell to you online after the race, and despite looking for them and trying to ‘look good’ for the camera while I ran, I didn’t have a single clear shot taken of me.  Which is a shame for them too, because I probably would have bought one. [↩]
3. We’ve had it for at least 5 years, if not more.  Benevolance and I have trained for two Sun Run’s using it, and it doesn’t owe us anything of the $1,000 that it cost us at the time. [↩]
4. And let me list them all for you: I know right now that I’d let the cold and rain be an excuse not to work out at all.  Plus, I don’t like running by traffic and having to figure out where I’m going and how far to go and whether I can get back or not, or having to calculate the route ahead of time – It’s just too much work.  And, I know it’ll be harder on my joints than running on a treadmill would be.  Don’t really have any cold weather clothing either, so it would mean investing even more $$ so that I could get an outfit together that would allow me to run and not freeze. [↩]
5. Though my husband just remembered that we do have an amenity room at the condo where we live and they do have a gym that probably has a working treadmill in it that we could see about using – hm [↩]
6. I really like this one because it’s so portable and easy to follow.  Will I get huge results?  Probably not.  Will I feel healthier?  Probably [↩]
7. after getting back from Japan [↩]
8. you know, one where I don’t skip a bunch of workouts at the end, and maybe actually see some results? [↩]

Related posts:

1. 2010 Goals: Writing
2. 2010 Goals: Reading