Running up the stairs like a boxer training

Well, since I replaced my broken fitness tracker a couple of weeks ago (after I’d been without it for 6 months), I’ve realised how awful I’ve been treating myself. I didn’t necessarily feel unfit but I knew I could be doing a lot more to take better care of myself.

Always rushing to catch buses & trains, dashing from one meeting to the next at breakneck speed, skipping meals because I just didn’t have time to eat, working long hours on top of a 3-4 hour round-trip commute, logging onto a fast food delivery app as soon as I got home, almost giving myself indigestion while devouring the takeaway before falling wearily into bed. Fast forward 5 hours to do the same thing all over again! Gosh, I feel shattered just writing it all down!

It hadn’t always been like this. Several years ago, the lengthy commute’s predecessor was a less than polished school run followed by a 30 minute short hop to a local job, the takeaway’s ancestor was a healthy home cooked meal which meant the meal skipping’s precursor was a packed lunch from the previous day’s leftovers. My days were just as long as there was still the mad dash after work to don my “Mum’s Taxi Service” cap to chauffeur the little darlings to football practice, birthday parties, friends’ sleepovers but I still managed to eat!

Isn’t it amazing how our lifestyle changes as our children grow into young adults? As they spend more time with their special ones, I find myself thinking it’s a chore to cook “proper” food just for me. Never mind that one of my kitchen cupboards is positively creaking from the weight of all the plastic takeaway containers I refuse to dispose of. My initial plan was that at some point I’d feel guilty at the evidence of my bad diet and change my ways……up to a couple of weeks ago, I was still waiting for the guilt to tap me on the shoulder and “tut” at me but nada, nichts, rien, nothing.

Eventually my son gently admonished me in a fantastic display of role reversal when he asked me what I’d eaten that evening, “No mum, cream crackers and Wotsits is not a meal!” Now when he put it like that, what could I say in justification? I knew trying to point out that Wotsits were cheesy, therefore one of my 5-a-day, just wouldn’t cut it!

Hence the fitness tracker…..logging my food and water intake against the calories I burn up through speeding about highlighted how much I was short-changing my body. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve drastically overhauled my lifestyle. I schedule in time to work out and eat properly. No more eating brown apples or mushy bananas that have sat neglected all day on my desk. I feel so much better. Today, I actually ran, yes ran, up 6 flights of stairs at work just to see if I could do it. Previously, I’ve only managed 4 flights at walking pace before having to stop for a rest. To be fair, they are huuuuuge flights of stairs. Today I managed to reach the 5th floor before I had to slow down to a quick step but I made it to the 6th and celebrated with a mini fist pump. Next time I might actually make it all the way, then I’ll celebrate by shadow boxing at the top, just like real boxers do.

Here’s to a fun and healthy lifestyle! Now what to do with all those plastic containers………

via Daily Prompt: Lifestyle