New Adventures at 35

Recently, I celebrated my 35th birthday. It was easily ranked in my top 3 of Greatest Birthdays, along with my 16th (which was a surprise Sweet Sixteen) and 30th (a trip to Italy with friends). I decided this would be the year of new adventures and not limiting myself from exposure to different things due to fear. I have always led a pretty straight and narrow life. Never got suspended, made pretty good grades, involved in my school and community, etc. etc. I lived this way all of my life but realized around the time I turned 30 that I had never really lived. I didn't even put permanent color in my hair until I was 30! I had always been an old person in a sense, trapped in a young person's body. I accelerated through undergraduate school faster than most because I was so busy with my head in the books rather than peaking to see what everyone else was doing in the clouds. It wasn't until I started running, right before I turned 30, that I realized there really was so much more to life, than just living right. Life is also about living well, and living well is defined differently for different people.

Running, if you allow it to, can really open doors to new experiences and new people. It is not by any means a cheap sport. If you are serious about running, chances are you've been in a race or two, and race entry fees alone are comparable to a household utility bill. However, running has afforded me the ability to meet driven people with various fitness interest and life aspirations. Had I not become a runner, I might not have had the opportunities to travel like I have, though I have so much more traveling to do. I might not have developed my new interest for swimming as a way to help me with my endurance, as I am currently taking swimming lessons. Most importantly, I might not have discovered the outer AND inner strength I possess, a courage and perseverance that has surprised me many times over past 5 years that I have been a runner. Running has definitely taught me you have to push through certain things in life, and see them through to the finish. The work is hard but the reward is always sweet. I decided to zip line as a way to celebrate my new found fearlessness that running has unleashed. I found that once you take the first leap on the zip line, the other leaps weren't so bad. You'd never know that though if you didn't try.

Given the current events of the world right now, you realize that life is too short and too precious to sit around thinking about what you wanna do. You just gotta get up and do it, and if it seems impossible you find a way to make it possible. Nothing really is out of our reach. But you can't sit on your butt and hope the stars will fall in your lap, you gotta reach for them. So, I have got a few things in line for this next year as I am trying to get back to my happy weight of 150 lbs (currently I am 188). Here's a list of a few things I am doing:

1. Revamping my healthy eating plan, including adding 5 smaller meals throughout the day that are protein packed. It's extremely hard to do this considering my job is one in which I barely get time to eat lunch, never mind fitting in a snack during the day. However, it can be done.

2. Adding tea to the start of my day to just kick start my metabolism.

3. I definitely want to do more of these dreadfully expensive destination races, with my eyes already set on Rock N Roll Brooklyn Half this October. I would also love to do a couple in the mid west and west coast.I usually try to pick places that are close to family or friends to spare some expense.

4. I want to get back into skating. I recently went skating after having not been on skates in 5 years, and though I really suck at it, I wasn't the suckiest person out there. Skating is a great work out, and I actually taught myself in college how to roller blade. I also think this is a great activity for me and my oldest son to do, because he's always begging me to take him skating.

5. I want to become a great swimmer and I am on my way to at least becoming good enough that the lifeguards won't have to be on standby to do CPR on me. My technique is not the best, but I am moving from one end of the pool to the other and right now that is all I care about.

6. Hike more. I've gotten into hiking at a local mountain. I absolutely love it and it is a completely different workout than running. I plan to incorporate these hikes at least once a month in my fitness plan.

I want to live my life continuing to be the best person I can be, and enjoy life along the way! I don't have to be a size 2 to do that, but I do want to be in my best health so that I enjoy life to the fullest. It's the saddest thing to see young people who are too unhealthy to enjoy life with their peers because they made poor life choices, and didn't know they were worth more. I am getting older but Lord knows I am ready to finally live. I've also learned at 35 you don't have to wait around for others to get to where you want to be. Sure, I love bringing people along my journey full of adventures. However, everything ain't for everybody. I've learned to celebrate with or without an audience, and it helps that naturally I am an introvert. So I am cool doing things by myself, although it's nice to have company every now and then.

Well, now that I've got my goals in writing. It is time to put them into action. Stay tuned...