“If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down.”
I started my sabbatical from my day job at the beginning of May and naturally people asked me what I was going to do with the time. Some people asked if I was going to write a book which is a bit like asking a fish if it intends to go swimming. I have been writing, and cooking, and doing crafts, and trying to reduce my amount of possessions saved in case they become magically unbroken or I need a 56k modem when civilisation collapses.
I didn’t say “I’m going to lose weight” because it seemed risky to set that as an ambition. I didn’t say I’m going to get fit because I didn’t use to care about fitness at all. But I did want to become healthier in mind, body and spirit – to use the time in new ways and do things I hadn’t been able to while working a highly pressured job.
And so I set a goal and began to work towards it. I started with walking, brought on by my love of PokemonGO. Then over the summer I did couch to 5k which taught me that I was capable of things I had never imagined possible. Then when I got bored of running I started doing exercise classes and as you will see from my previous posts discovered a love of fitness I had NO IDEA was inside me. Discovering this new person who actually enjoys going to class and lifting weights and doing squats was a huge surprise. I couldn’t have been more surprised to discover I was actually a lizard person or the Queen of Genovia.
“Fitbit: Weight goal met”
I don’t blame myself for gaining weight. That’s extremely easy to do in the modern world, especially when you live in an affluent country and are reasonably affluent yourself. I’m happy to have lost it, that was hard work. It’s not just changing your body, it’s changing your mind.
But what makes me happiest now is to know that I’ve found a new source of joy in my life and a new way of being me. That’s a goal worth celebrating.