Fitness Wednesday

Because I kind of hate the "weigh in Wednesday" thing.

I am not a naturally sporty person. I played sports in school, right up until high school, but they were the kind that a) I was already good at and b) didn't take much practice or conditioning.

I loathe running. I fucking hate it from the depths of my soul. It is boring, painful (ugh, my knees), and I am just not built as a distance runner so it never gets easier, just a smidge less miserable. Like, 10 steps in I hate it and want to stop. This is not about hitting a wall.

Gyms bore me. I am almost never going to be the person who thinks "ooh, I'll go mountain biking/climbing/whitewater rafting" on a regular basis. I don't mind hiking in the sense of long walks in the woods on gentle inclines, but there is a point on every mountain hike when we hit the part where it's all rocky and straight up and shitty and I turn into a three year old and everyone hates me and I hate myself and I want to die. So sometimes I'll hike when that rocky part is like 15 minutes. Any longer than that and I want nothing to do with it.

Riding is really my main physical outlet, which explains why after the worst winter ever I started for the first time feeling kind of like I was not as fit as I wanted to be. Part of that is yes, I have some extra weight, but that's never been my top concern. I'd rather my body do the things I want it to, when I want it to, than weigh a certain goal amount. I want to do right by my horse, to feel energetic instead of lethargic, and to just generally be healthier.

Hence the "fitness Wednesday."

So I'm going to try and report in semi-regularly about how I'm doing about that. Mostly, I want to make better choices: about what I eat and how much of it, about how I move my body and how active I am. More deliberation, less instinct.

For the past few weeks I've been tracking what I eat using My Fitness Pal, with a twofold goal: to make sure I don't overeat, especially sugary things, and to make sure that I'm meeting broad nutritional goals - iron and vitamins in particular. My iPhone also has a steps tracker, so I'm trying to increase that a little bit every day - not always hit that magical 10k number, but just, do better. Take another long walk, or force myself to ride, or take the dog out. Anything to keep my body moving.

Anyway - that's my very loose, vague, and unspecific manifesto!