Sunday, June 13 will mark one year of taking life seriously. It will be one year ago on Saturday, June 13 that I weighed myself when I got home from family vacation and decided it was time to do something about my lifestyle. I think the weight, a magical 256.4 pounds on my brother’s bathroom scale, was just the quantitative evidence of the feelings I had been having for quite some time. I have never been one to gauge my health or my happiness by a number on a scale, but I had been feeling particularly unhappy with myself for quite some time. This feeling of unrest had more to do with my inability to find clothes that fit, my disappointment with my level of physical fitness, and my general feeling of blah. I knew I needed to make some changes, so I said to myself that my changes were not going to be about losing weight, but about getting to a place in which I felt good both physically and emotionally. On Sunday June 14, 2009, I started running. Actually, what I started doing was walking. Slowly. I started by running 30 seconds to a minute and walking a minute in between each “run.” I built up to “running” 13.1 miles on May 8, 2010. I didn’t get the time I wanted, but I finished, and as a side perk my blood pressure is lower than normal, I’ve lost 40 pounds, and I feel a million times better.
I suppose since it’s been a year, it’s time to set some new goals. One goal I had already set for this year was to run a marathon the fall after my 36th birthday. I am maintaining it as a goal by signing up for one on November 6. Here is my list of goals for this year from June 13, 2010 to June 12, 2011 (they are in no particular order):
- Finish the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 6. Running, walking, or crawling.
- Shave my head on June 13 and on the 13th of every month all year long.
- Contemplate things outside of myself. Cultivate spiritual wholeness.
- Have 75% or more of my students grow one academic year’s worth of growth during the school year.
- Finish two chapters of my dissertation.
- Run 1000 miles (3 miles per day). Run and walk a combination of 3000 miles (10 miles per day).
- Go vegan. Stay at least lacto-vegetarian.
- Learn to say only what is necessary. Listen more than talk.
- Read one new book and one magazine from cover to cover each week. Follow the news, in print.
- Finish painting the outside of the house.
Reason Breeds Insanity 
Corby, thanks for sharing your experience on how you built up your endurance with running. I’d love to talk with you sometime more about it. I would very much like to learn to run, but I have a tendency to give up as soon as I start because it hurts, I can’t breathe, I get bored, etc. etc. etc. I’d like to know how you mentally fought through all of this. I’m really proud of how far you’ve come in the last year, and hearing about it motivates me to get more healthy.
those are high goals, my friend. i’m so proud of you. have i mentioned that?
Not sure if they are high goals, so much as things I should already be doing… Thanks! I am proud of you, too, Sarah!