What is Your Passion?
By: Nancy Howard,
SparkPeople Blogger
2/18/2009 12:04 PM
: 115 comments
For many of us when we embarked on this journey we succumbed to the notion that the best and quickest way to lose the weight was to participate in whatever exercise we needed in order to get the weight off as quickly as possible. It didn’t matter if it was an activity we enjoyed, it was just like taking medicine—you may not like it, but you knew you would get some benefit along the way. Therefore, like the Nike ad suggest we all need to JUST DO IT!
When people ask me how I got into running I tell them that it evolved over time. In fact running actually was an activity I always wanted to participate in, but I just never had the courage to do so until well after the first year of my journey. Before I even considered running I had to get my heart, lungs, and body adapted to exercise period.
So like many of you, I started out with small pockets of exercise. Doing more than ten minutes on the elliptical was about all I could physically manage. I was so unfit that my body just could not handle much more then this. Over time, however, I was able to go a little longer each week and not feel as though I was going to collapse after every session. Within 9 months, the challenge of working out came to a standstill. I was no longer seeing the results on the scale. I had hit the dreaded plateau.
What I have concluded is that if you do not continually challenge the body to work as hard today as the day you started your journey, your body will adapt to the exercise. That is what the body wants and desires--a state of homeostasis or balance. Therefore, your body will not require the same number of calories for the task at hand that you needed when you first started exercising. This is not a bad thing, unless you look at exercise as punishment and not something you enjoy.
Consequently, I turned to running. While I was not a runner from the onset, I did start with walking and slowly added in more and more minutes of running over a period of time. Within 3 months, I ran my first race on March 25, 2006, over 13 months after I started this journey. Since that time I have participated in well over 60 races and last Saturday I took the plunge to run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 11, 2009.
Finding a passion is what allows many of us to stay on this journey, whether that passion is running, walking, ice skating, or even strength training. When we develop a passion for the exercise that we do, many of us will be more determined to find ways to fit these activities into our schedule. Not only does exercise help keep our hearts strong, our bodies strong, but it also increases the serotonin in our brains to help us think better and feel better about who we are. And I think it helps us all build more confidence to take on tasks we never imagined ourselves doing before we started this journey.
What is your passion? Do you have an exercise goal in your future? What are you doing today that you never saw yourself doing before this journey?
Photo of Nancy running in her first 5K of the Fall 2008 running season.
When people ask me how I got into running I tell them that it evolved over time. In fact running actually was an activity I always wanted to participate in, but I just never had the courage to do so until well after the first year of my journey. Before I even considered running I had to get my heart, lungs, and body adapted to exercise period.
So like many of you, I started out with small pockets of exercise. Doing more than ten minutes on the elliptical was about all I could physically manage. I was so unfit that my body just could not handle much more then this. Over time, however, I was able to go a little longer each week and not feel as though I was going to collapse after every session. Within 9 months, the challenge of working out came to a standstill. I was no longer seeing the results on the scale. I had hit the dreaded plateau.
What I have concluded is that if you do not continually challenge the body to work as hard today as the day you started your journey, your body will adapt to the exercise. That is what the body wants and desires--a state of homeostasis or balance. Therefore, your body will not require the same number of calories for the task at hand that you needed when you first started exercising. This is not a bad thing, unless you look at exercise as punishment and not something you enjoy.
Consequently, I turned to running. While I was not a runner from the onset, I did start with walking and slowly added in more and more minutes of running over a period of time. Within 3 months, I ran my first race on March 25, 2006, over 13 months after I started this journey. Since that time I have participated in well over 60 races and last Saturday I took the plunge to run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 11, 2009.
Finding a passion is what allows many of us to stay on this journey, whether that passion is running, walking, ice skating, or even strength training. When we develop a passion for the exercise that we do, many of us will be more determined to find ways to fit these activities into our schedule. Not only does exercise help keep our hearts strong, our bodies strong, but it also increases the serotonin in our brains to help us think better and feel better about who we are. And I think it helps us all build more confidence to take on tasks we never imagined ourselves doing before we started this journey.
What is your passion? Do you have an exercise goal in your future? What are you doing today that you never saw yourself doing before this journey?
Photo of Nancy running in her first 5K of the Fall 2008 running season.
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Comments
I also love just walking leisurely or hiking and yoga. - 8/31/2010 1:57:46 PM
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Btw, the picture of Nancy Howard running is quite inspiring. She looks very fit and happy. That is how I always want to be from now until far in the future I leave this earth. - 10/24/2009 5:56:59 PM
Then, I saw some adults rehearsing for a tap dance recital. I had always wanted to learn tap, so I enrolled for a summer class with a bunch of teens (I was 62 and weighed about 220).
I fell in love with dance (though it was hard that summer), and I've been taking dance classes ever since. I always take tap, since I love it the most, but I also, at times, study ballet, hip hop, and jazz. Right now, it's tap and hip hop.
This will be my 4th year on the senior dance team, Seniorgee. We perform hip hop at Milwaukee Bucks basketball games once a month, during basketball season. What a blast! Thousands of cheering fans on their feet! I never dreamed I could do something like this. Doing the "happy dance" is my passion. Rock on! - 10/20/2009 1:43:31 AM
Nice side benefit-I am developing a waist!!! Woo Hoo!!! - 10/10/2009 6:06:21 PM
Ha! This question keeps popping up at me this, my Summer of Searching, when I'm trying to figure out who I am & what I want to do (again!). Still trying to figure that one out. But in the fitness context, that's easy. I love to hike. Life is best w/ a pack on my back, trekking poles in my hands, & a great, big mtn (or waterfall or ... anything natural!) in front of me.
I also enjoy playing tennis & doing step aerobics. Step is fun for me (I know some people hate it, which is why there are only 12 or so folks in my class). I enjoy the choreography.
* Do you have an exercise goal in your future?
I have a couple of local goal hikes this summer, but no "event" like a race or anything. I wanted to run. Oh, how I wanted to run! But it just isn't for me.
* What are you doing today that you never saw yourself doing before this journey?
I've always been a hiker, but I'm going higher & farther than I could have before. I just bought a water bottle from the Desolation Wilderness ranger station in Lake Tahoe that says: "Altitude - Solitude - Attitude." I've always called hiking "walking w/ altitude." There is no way I could have done those Desolation hikes a couple of yrs ago & I want to do more! I don't want a trail to ever "beat" me, y'know? (but there are lots that are still out of my reach, & that's OK)
Re: "What I have concluded is that if you do not continually challenge the body to work as hard today as the day you started your journey, your body will adapt to the exercise."
Now that is the challenge, isn't it? *Continually* challenging your body. When I was trying to run, I noticed I wasn't "pushing" it. I wasn't challenging my body, but almost relaxing into its comfort zone. When I hike, I do like to push it (w/ appropriate photo breaks, of course!). I want to get that work-out while enjoying the scenery & the surroundings. If it's flat, I like to go fast. If it's up, I take it a little easier, for endurance, & like to see how far I can get w/o needing to stop, & then go a little farther & then a little farther.
I'm still looking for my passion in life & praying that God will reveal it to me. At least I have found my exercise passion. Maybe I should just accept it all one step at a time.
xoxo
- 8/1/2009 12:04:13 PM
Love it or leave it! That's my motto! - 8/1/2009 10:54:32 AM
My goals are numerous, run a 5k under 29 min., run my September 10k in under an hour, run my October 1/2 marathon in less than 2 hr. 15 min. then ramp up to run the Flying Pig Marathon in May 2010.
The running, cycling, weightlifting, kickboxing...2 years ago I would have never dreamed I would be doing these things and enjoying them so much. The most activity I got before was "running" from the couch to the fridge.
My life is SOOOO much better. - 5/7/2009 9:31:20 AM
I can't imagine my life without Falcao. He is my exercise, my confidant, my dance partner. - 2/22/2009 9:58:29 PM
Starting small :) - 2/21/2009 12:12:15 PM
What am I doing now that I never before considered? Well, I did a triathlon, for one. I never had even thought about doing that before! I am also starting to think about getting my PT certification from ACE. - 2/21/2009 10:03:31 AM
I've been borrowing videos from the library. My latest fad is learning Latin dances. I'd love to join a class, if I can find one.
When the weather improves, I will get back outside more, tend my yard, plant a garden, do some walking, hiking, and canoeing near my home . Meanwhile, I stick with workout videos and Pilates at home. - 2/20/2009 2:13:42 PM
So, what am I doing now that I never expected myself doing ?
I work part time as an aerobics instructor and personal trainer. If you had asked me five years ago where I would be, that's the last place I would have said.
But, here I am. An opportunity arose and I took advantage of it. Deciding to become an instructor was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
I love teaching.
- 2/20/2009 9:50:19 AM
....... - 2/20/2009 6:31:16 AM
I also have a budding passion for rock climbing, which I just started doing a month ago. Oh and I love hiking and kayaking, but I only get to do those occasionally since I don't own a kayak and our mountains are covered in snow 9 months out of the year. - 2/20/2009 3:02:32 AM
RUNNING!
Do you have an exercise goal in your future?
I keep saying that "one day" I'd like to participate in a 5K -- but honestly not willing to TRAVEL to attend one!
What are you doing today that you never saw yourself doing before this journey?
Running --- without having an accident, if you knowutimean! : O - 2/20/2009 12:18:36 AM
So, yes, find your passion. - 2/19/2009 6:20:31 PM
This summer I'm going to do it. I already missed sign up deadlines for Spring, but as soon as I finish school for the year I'm signing up for adult swim lessons at the local YMCA. I'm scared, and I'm self conscious, but I have always wanted to swim. For the first time in 12 years I feel like I can put on a swimsuit and do it! - 2/19/2009 5:27:15 PM
Just follow a good training schedule for the marathon and you will do very well. I don't know if Chicago puts out a training schedule but New York does and it works very well - my friends were all runners and trained without injury with the schedule.
I would love to repeat but I can't walk for exercise because of an injury to I'm working around it - maybe cycling.
Well good running!!! - 2/19/2009 4:22:35 PM
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