Just a quick preface to this post.  I started writing this back in September of 2010.  Not sure what caused me to stop writing back then but I only wrote two short paragraphs and will finish now.

I am shedding. I have decided to clean house in a manner that leaves me with more house to live in so things are going out in the garbage and recycling. I have boxed up papers I am keeping – for who knows what reason as I am not totally sure – and am putting the box in the garage. I know most of us use our garages for cars but mine is my only storage area as my basement is a cellar with a dirt floor and stone walls. On top of boxing things up for the garage, I am thinking, if I am given some good weather without a ton of other things going on, I will even clean out the garage.

You may ask what is up with all this “hoeing” out. I have to say that a lot of it is thanks to Bindu Wiles and her shed project. I know I don’t need a lot of this stuff. I just want to get rid of what I don’t need to live so I can live better with what I do need.

These two paragraphs above keep coming back to me again and again.  I started them, as I said at the start here, about nine months ago.  Now, though, my thought process is going to a different type of shedding.  As I was cleaning out some spaces, I came across photos.  These were photos of me in the mid to late 90′s.  I hardly recognize the woman.  What I cannot figure out is why someone didn’t tell me how large I had gotten.

Those days were tough days.  My marriage had ended and I was working outside my home full-time.  At the same moment, I had my oldest in the throws of teendom and my youngest not quite ready for school yet.  Needless to say, I was overextended and tended to eat to sooth emotional issues.  And, there were lots of emotional issues surrounding everything going on in my life.

So what changed?  If you have followed my healthy lifestyle journey posts, you will know it was the health issues of my parents that finally made me see the light.  Both of my parents have, or in the case of my father had, health issues.  I didn’t want these.  I wanted to be able to go out and have fun with friends and not have to worry about what I was eating.  I wanted to know that when I hit 50, the wheels were not going to fall off the bus.

How was I going to avoid what heredity had in store for me?  I decided, at the age of 46, I was going to outrun it.  I know it sounds crazy.  I started slowly.  Never having heard of Couch to 5K at the time, I began walking and running.  There was a little more running each time I went out.  I sprained an ankle so took the knowledge I had gained from being a soccer mom and taped my ankle and went out anyway.  I just kept going, slowly but surely.  I was not the speediest person out there but was definitely running more than walking.

Then, I met a friend who had taken up running and he dropped 40 plus pounds.  I saw photos of him from before running but never thought I would be able to do that.  He was encouraging.  I registered for my first race.  I loved it!  I had caught the racing bug.  No way around it – I was a runner.

I want to encourage you, if you are reading this, to get up and go do something.  I know everyone is not a runner.  I am not speedy by most people’s standards so realize that running is a personal thing.  You do not compare yourself to others but to yourself.  How did you do on this route the last time you ran it?  What was your time the last time you ran this race?  You can make your own pace, your own routes, your own runs.  Do you see?  YOU are in control.