“She toted a giant Nalgene bottle full of water with her everywhere she went and consumed massive quantities of water from it everyday. She felt great.”
Once upon a time there was a girl who was in great shape.
She was majoring in wilderness leadership, which meant that most of her classes involved things like hiking, paddling, rock climbing, high ropes courses, etc… and her weekends were spent exploring a National Forest. Her meals all came from the dining hall, where the most appealing food was on the salad bar. She toted a giant Nalgene bottle full of water with her everywhere she went and consumed massive quantities of water from it everyday. She felt great.
Life was good.
Now fast forward +/- 10 years from graduation.
Hi, I’m Rachel. I have a desk job in an accounting firm and I’m a bonafide foodie (i.e. I loooooove to eat good food! Lots of it!) I live in the suburbs. I’m married, but no kids yet – just two cats that want nothing but a lap to sit in, and I am happy to oblige them. After a hard day at my desk I usually enjoy cooking a good meal (yay olive oil and real butter!) and sitting on the couch under both cats while keeping up with a rigorous television watching schedule.
Why yes, good reader, I did watch every single episode of “Lost” on it’s original air date, and I am following at least 5 different shows almost religiously at any given time. I am nothing if not dedicated. I’m sure you can’t help but admire my consistency and ferocious level of commitment. I mostly drink coffee. Good coffee.
Life is still good.
But I don’t feel so great most of the time.
I believe we can safely blame this on the extra pounds and dress sizes that my substantially more sedentary lifestyle has packed on.
The upshot: In 2011, my husband and I have decided that it’s time to change our lifestyle. We both want to get back to how great we felt when we were living in the mountains. We’ve spent too long thinking “If only we could move back to the mountains and have that great healthy lifestyle again…”
Since getting back to the mountains isn’t a viable option right now, it’s time to bring the lifestyle to the burbs.
Our goals are:
- Get on a regular exercise schedule.
- Eat a healthier diet.
- Find things to do that don’t involve sitting on a couch with cats on us while we stare at a glowing box.
Meeting these goals promises to be more complicated than their simple wording makes them sound, especially on a nice tight “we want to move out of this tiny condo and into a real house” budget. So we decided to ease in to it.
We’re doing P90X.
…continue to part 2 of this article
By Rachel Oakes | Rachel studied Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education at Brevard College and currently Lives in North Carolina with her husband and 2 cats.
