Renovating Kaeti

Just a few months ago I was finishing up my last semester of college, a double major with two jobs and a senior thesis to finish. Like anyone who has experienced extremely stressful times — i.e., college, new job, new baby, life — I hardly had time to sleep, let alone worry about “minor” details like my health, fitness and quality of life. I was deeply and comfortably entrenched in an all-too-average routine of no exercise, no sleep, bad food and really bad food. And I was miserable.

So I vowed that when I finished school, I would make some long-overdue changes in my life: I would eat healthy, get fit and lose weight. Of course I had no idea what any of that actually meant. But at least I was thinking about it. As many of you can probably attest, the hard part is actually doing something — getting from couch to door, and not because you need another combo meal.

As a journalism major, I was drawn to Experience Life magazine because of its whole-life, no-hype approach. So shortly after graduation (the day after, actually), I found myself plopped head first into an environment that was the exact opposite of my, shall we say, alternative-to-healthy lifestyle at the time. As out of place as I felt, Experience Life was also exactly the place I needed to be to begin my journey into a better life.

Now, some nine months later, I have stumbled and scrambled my way into a healthier, happier way of life. But it’s certainly an ongoing process, and I am continually learning and being challenged by the many hurdles that inevitably creep up when we attempt dramatic change in our lives. Trust me, there are plenty of days when I just want curl up on the couch, eat two bags of Cool Ranch Doritos while watching Spanish-language reality shows, and resign myself to a life of Internet chat rooms and heart disease. But then I have to ask myself: Is that really how I want to live? Even on my laziest days, the answer is no. So I identified some goals to help me focus and track my progress. Here are a few:

• I want to feel at ease in my own skin, and to recognize myself in the mirror.
• I want to base my diet around fresh, whole foods.
• I want to achieve a solid level of physical fitness, measured by VO2 max, strength, endurance, fat-to-lean-tissue ratio and a lower resting heart rate.
• This year, I want to run (and finish) my first 5K and then 10K.
• Finally, through all of these things, I want to find a greater sense of balance in my life.

This blog will follow my progress — as well as my setbacks — along the way. Wherever you are on your own journey to health, I hope we can tackle some of the obstacles together, and come out the other side stronger and healthier. Care to share goals you have for yourself this year?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Intro. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.