For those of you who have had the privilege of living with me or having me over or really just even seeing me in the morning, you know that this is WEIRD. Super duper weird. I'm neither a morning person nor a night person. I'm what my sister used to call, "a sleep person." If I can push an extra three minutes of sleep, I will do it. But not yesterday. Nope. I was awake and ready to tackle the day.
You might be thinking to yourself, what the HELL happened to Charlotte the past month? She disappeared a mopey mess and reemerges as a shining happy person? Did she get lobotomized? What's the deal?
Well. The abridged version is this. In the past month...I did a full Buffy/Angel rewatch (I mean, kind of...I basically watched the first three seasons of Buffy and then just followed Angel to his own series and am now finally coming back to Buffy season four, but whatever), I packed up my apartment, I got rid of my ex's stuff, I moved into a three bedroom apartment with three new roommates and two cats, I unpacked, and then finally this week I went back to work.
But I guess this new revved up version of me really came to fruition this past Sunday. I attended a pool party where everyone around me was so incredibly supportive of the changes I've made, I couldn't believe it. They offered me love and hugs and wanted to participate in my journey. It gave me the confidence to recognize the success in losing 15lbs, no matter how long it takes. And it also pushed me to make more goals for myself. One of my friends is also in the process of getting fit, and he told me that the key to his success was finding what kind of goals inspired him and motivated him. He admitted he found the most success when he found a nemesis to compete with. It sounded ridiculous to me, but as he explained, I totally understood. He's a bit of a gamer, and so to him it made sense to "play" against an opponent. He now has beaten his time for a 5k and is working on what his next goal should be.
I took this model and just sort of ran with it. After all, I knew I was going to be forming a new routine for the foreseeable future, and I wanted that to include fitness. So, Monday morning I weighed myself and was surprised to see I was still at 245 lbs. I had neither lost nor gained any weight in my month off from prioritizing my fitness, which is totally fine. It's the perfect baseline to keep on keeping on.
The first part of settling into my routine was finding my closest grocery stores and stocking up on healthy foods. Success.
Then, I tried out the gyms in my new 'hood. Not so much a success. After trying the two gyms closest to my new place, I decided I needed to find something out of the gym to do. Luckily, I live pretty close to the Silverlake Reservoir, and there's a 2.5 mile loop around it. After coming home from my first day of work, I changed into my work out clothes, grabbed Rory and tried it out. And it was amazing.
Guys. GUYS. This is where I walked. At sunset. I live in this place! This is not my picture because the one I took did not look nearly as majestic or beautiful, but the way I feel looking at this picture right now is how I felt when I was walking around the reservoir. It took us about 45 minutes to walk the path, but afterwards I felt so great and Rory felt so great, I knew that it was the right decision. Now, I'm starting a habit of walking the reservoir loop every night when I come home. That will accrue to about 12 miles a week! Which is pretty significant. Plus, after sitting on my computer all day, walking around feels amazing. And Rory doesn't hate it either.
I figure I'll start with that. Right now I just want to work to enforce positive healthy habits, and this is a really good starting place. Eventually, I plan on doubling up my loop, going up to walking 25 miles a week. But for now, this is good.
I feel. SO. GOOD.
I'm excited to be back in this place and am ready to combat anything. As always. Let's keep doing this.
Hope it's going well, Char!! Sounds like a good fresh start in a new apartment. Go girl! xo
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