That video was me doing one-armed handstands in July 2013.  It’s hard to believe that it was 4 years ago already!  I posted that here for my own inspiration, to remind myself of the days when I was running every day, and could do 3 sets of 30 box jumps onto a 36″ box.  We can always return to the places we have been, and we can go farther…true about any journey, including one of fitness.

Unfortunately, in the years and months that have elapsed since 2013, my journey has taken me in the opposite direction.  Andrew and I are self-admitted foodies and it is not hard for us to persuade one another down a path of ice cream, tacos and New York style pizza.  😦    I am less concerned about weight or size than I am about energy and feeling like I have enough energy, strength and heart to do whatever I want to do.  I am lucky to have a husband who makes me feel beautiful regardless of the thousand internalized social inferences our society imposes on women.

Two weeks ago, we began again and as part of this new journey, I have decided to blog about this every day for 60 days, my own, private diary, except on the internet.  I am already down by 5 lbs, and I am working out 5 or so days per week.

I began today with running.  Below is my Polar report from my run:

I am not worrying for the moment about distance or pace. I am focusing on time and heart rate and the rest will come together in time.  I hope to run a 5K this spring.

I also ride horses, and my friend, Laura, gave me the wonderful suggestion of giving endurance riding a try.  This is a goal now, too.  Riding long distances, across country, sometimes with camping.  I can’t wait.  I think my friend, Jennifer and I are going to try to make our first endurance ride together this spring.

In the meantime, my non-horsey friends have always said, “Riding horses?  What exercise?  The horse does all the work!”  Au contraire!  I have started wearing my Polar monitor during my rides.  In addition to running today, I did two rides.

The first one (below) was on Marcos.   I forgot to turn the workout on until I was 30 or so minutes into my ride, so I was only able to capture 20 minutes, but here it is:

The second time out, on Filigree, I captured the whole ride, including more than 20 minutes of walking at the end.  Below is my Fili ride:

And so it begins.   Fili and I are getting back in shape together.  I will include some photos below of my rides today, as well as a video of us riding off into the sunset.  🙂