Resolved

It's hard to make yourself a priority in your life. That sounds odd even as I write it but I'm finding it to be true – especially in my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining – too much. I'm a very good mother hen and a connector. I love networking and bringing people together. I'm social and I have an active lifestyle but it's too easy to mistake an active social life with a physically active life. I do very well with the former and would rate myself below par on the latter. Along the way, especially within the last three years, I stopped doing things and started talking about doing things. A family friend asked me, "What I like to do" and it took me a minute to come up with a standard response to tell him. Then I realized, I shouldn't be answering that question with a standard response – you know, the kind you'd write in a brief profile – but I should be able to answer resoundingly with things I'm passionate about and love doing. After a while, I was able to answer him but it took me a minute and made me realize – I'd become what I call a 'coaster' – someone who talks a good game but doesn't get up off the couch to make it happen; but now, all that's about to change.

Everything has a beginning and this is mine; my beginning towards achieving the ultimate goal of a healthy, balanced lifestyle change. I used to believe the worst thing in the world would be to become a stereotype or worse, live up to one, and I still do. But for all my self-assurance that there was no way I would become a stereotype, I've gone and done so. I'm a 26 year old, African-American and Puerto Rican female which means I hit the genetic lottery on degenerative illnesses which my gene-pool has a high likelihood of being affected by. It's only taken me the last eight years to completely ruin my health and enter into a fallow stage of my physical fitness to realize I needed to make a change. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame anyone for my current state of being for my health nor do I blame anything for my lack of fitness. It's easy to fall back on excuses – I don't have time, running isn't for me, I hate the gym, etc.; but none of its true or at least none of its reason enough to continue along my current path.

As my mother says, "no one has time, you make time," and as my history of being an athlete shows – I have no problem with gyms or working out. It's all about finding what works for me and my life. I'm all over the place and I need to find a health/fitness system that works for me. It's actually appalling to me, now that the rose-colored glasses have been knocked off and crushed into the ground, how far I've let myself go and how much of an uphill battle I have before me. But, it takes reaching a point where you step on a scale and exclaim "What the FUCK!" at the top of your lungs to decide to make a change. So here is mine.

I figure the only way to do this is to go big or go home. That's the way we do things in America – we live in a super-sized world where the health/fitness industry seems to be more interested in making a buck then it is in actually making a difference in people's lives. The information out there on the best way to help your body and get in shape seems to ebb and flow like a tide, constantly changing and making zero sense. My sense of literacy to food, fitness, and health is at an all-time low and this should not be the case. I've spent the majority of my life as a student so I know how to do my research and that's what I intend to do. I don't want a fluff diet or fad that is "guaranteed to get me ripped in 60 days". I think its all bunk. I think it takes good old, hard work, sweat, tears…maybe a little blood and a whole lot of grit. So to do this right and to do this my way, it's all about keeping myself honest and accountable.

You can expect the good, the bad, and the fugly from this blog…because I imagine getting starting will include a lot of bumps, bruises and finding strategic ways to incorporate tequila into caloric intake. I hope to be inspired, be exhausted and ultimately be triumphant in achieving my first five goals and setting the bar higher in Round 2.