A thin year.

Three days into my new fitness regime and I am *stiff, sore, cramped, achy*…… and….. grateful. Because isn’t that an awesome feeling? The “I worked myself so hard that I’m practically crippled but aren’t I a badass?” feeling.

If only, eh? In my case it’s more like “I am so out of shape from slacking on the gym for six months and now I’m paying for it in every possible corner of my body.” But either way, it means I’m shaping up for the new year. For assistance with this, I’ve joined a motivation program at my local YWCA which meets once weekly for discussion, nutritional support and fitness explorations. That’s every Wednesday for the next twelve weeks, and I’m counting on it being the kickintheass I need to get myself back into a regular gym routine.

You know how there are thin years and fat years? Okay – maybe you don’t know that, but my life can pretty much be divided up that way. 2010 was definitely a fat year – even though I was in good shape at the start. But then I hurt my shoulder working out which threw my routine – and then I started gaining weight due to a couple of other lifestyle issues which left me discouraged about working out even more than the injury. Finally, I decided to start riding my bike to work which was awesome, but not in that I then started skipping the gym altogether and completely abandoned some of my other healthy habits. I was on the road for most of the fall, eating in restaurants and generally being stressed…. Upshot? I spent all of 2010 gaining weight.

So I’m aiming for 2011 to be a thin year, or at least a thinner one now that I think I’m on the other side of an addiction cycle and I’m ditching some of my stressors in the form of union responsibilities.  Probably even more important than having a thin year is getting my fitness levels back up to where they were this time last year because I miss that feeling of strength, flexibility and general awesomeness in my body – and I am planning several hiking trips (first one in April) that I’d like to enjoy.

And honestly? I have missed working out and how it energizes and breaks up my days in addition to the fact that I sleep better, am more flexible, and have less lower-back pain from sitting at a desk all day. It’s just such a worthwhile use of an hour a day that I’m not sure how the laze-monster wins out so often and keeps me pinned to work (or housework) instead (and no, it’s not because of some subconscious desire to be unattractive so let’s not go psychoanalyzing down that road).

In any event I’m recommitting each day, hoping that the YWCA program gives me the support I need to rally my internal resources, and back at working out and monitored eating. Again? Yes. Again.