It was a weird thing for me to say "I am training for a triathlon!" To be honest, it was weird just to be thinking that. That is because I have never had any ambitions (after my brief Judo-career between the age of 8 and 9) to compete in any type of sport. Outside of PE classes I have not been a very active kid. Sure, I would play in the backyard. I owned a bike, roller skates (the Inline skates of the 80s), and a skateboard but those were the toys that, after I unwrapped and used them for about a week, would be sitting somewhere in a place that my mom found because they weren't supposed to take up any room while I didn't use them. I should also take some time to talk about PE classes very briefly: Do you remember how they made two kids pick the team members for the games in PE? Well, I would say I wasn't always the last kid picked but definitely amongst the last 30% chosen to be on the team. It's not that I was completely untalented. I guess I was doing okay but I didn't have that natural ability or gift other kids had who were just good athletes. The yearly track and field contest held, that all German elementary schools do would point out my mediocracy. I would never get the silver- or gold-status so many of my fellow students would regularly obtain. Every year I would come home as a "Participant". Yeah! The one thing however, I was relatively good at was dancing. I did Ballet and Jazz Dance for many years and my flexibility was above average. I stopped taking dance lessons when I was about 16 and didn't pick up a steady work-out routine until basically now. Of course there were the occasional gym-memberships and Aerobics classes. I did Pilates and went jogging here and there but there's nothing I can list here that was an outstanding achievement as far as exercising goes.
Looking back, my recent interest in health and sports was probably triggered three years ago when I went vegan. I stopped eating all animal products and that in turn made me eat a lot of carbs. Much more than I had eaten before. And slowly but surely those extra pounds crept on until I weighed about 8kg (17lbs) more that I ever had before. Finally I decided that this excess weight was not acceptable anymore and about 6 months ago, I started a work out routine that was introduced to me by my mother in law. She had been achieving great results as far as weight loss and overall fitness with the help of the p90x work out programs. It's a regimen that consists of 12 work outs on DVDs. You're supposed to do them 6 times a week for 90 days to complete the whole cycle. I figured that I could give it a shot and as cheesy as it sounds, it worked. I vividly remember the first day of my journey sometime in February. There I was, standing in my living room in front of the TV, the curtains closed and the dumb bells ready. Man, that thing kicked my butt! Sometimes I would just be sitting in front of the TV laughing because I couldn't believe what I was supposed to be doing. "Walking push ups?" Sure! But I stuck with it and trusted the instructor guy when he said "Rome wasn't build in a day..." This fitness program, as silly as it sounds, made me realize that I can do anything, if I just took up the training. Nothing is going to happen over night and I might not be naturally talented but I have two healthy legs and arms and I can swim, bike, and run if I want to. After finishing the p90x I am now in pretty good shape. I lost 10kg(22lbs) so far, I do push ups and pull ups and most important, I feel fit and enjoy working out. It has become and integral part of my life style. Six days a week I make time to exercise and it's fun! So here I go, planning to do a triathlon next summer!
