Transformational

I have been undergoing quite a transformation recently. About a year ago I decided I wanted to try and eat healthier and exercise more and lose some weight. However, even as I worked to increase my amount of exercise I rarely included cardiovascular workouts in the form of jogging or running. Occasionally I would get on my treadmill, but I never did it on a regular basis.  I have just never been able to get up the motivation I required to actually exercise for jogging that I can for a weight training workout or sports of some sort.  As I have been getting healthier I have been reading more books and articles about achieving good health. Not too long ago I came across a source that recommended a workout of interval jogging. Jog for 1 minute walk at a fast pace for 3 minutes and repeat. That sounded like a workout I could handle. But I still didn't have the motivation do actually do it. I just hate the idea of running around a track repeatedly. I get so bored so easily and just want to stop. One thing I do like is hiking and I have used that as part of my exercise routine from time to time. Then I also learned that the trail I liked to hike is almost exactly a 5K. That little fact motivated me, because I always thought a 5k was something I could not do, but unbeknownst to me I had been doing one up and down a mountain for years.  So now I had the confidence to really give this a shot. I was going to use this new interval jogging routine on this 5K trail. I have always loved hiking so it seemed like a natural fit. I quickly learned that the amount of focus and attention that one has to pay to the trail while running keeps the mind active and does not allow for one to get bored. After I had run the trail a few times, once a week, I found myself thinking about trail running more and more frequently. I actually began thinking about doing the trail run multiple times in a weekend. And today I Did it for the second time in 4 days. I am contemplating making this my regular weeknight routine as long as its not too hot. It is amazing and fascinating to me that I have so quickly gone from someone who loathed the very idea of running for fun/exercise to someone trying to figure out a way to do it more frequently. Although I still would not say I find it fun at this point, but I am getting there.