Be Active and Exercise?

Hah. Exercise was not even a word in my vocabulary when I was a teenager. And that was part of the problem. You can eat, you can reduce your food intake, but eventually, if you don't exercise you won't lose anything. Or at least, you'll stop losing.

The body follows the simplest of equations. If you eat more calories than you use up every day, those extra calories have to go somewhere. Usually they end up as fat. Body fat.

Now me, I wasn't what you'd call lazy ... I walked pretty much everywhere. But I hated sports (I think probably because I wasn't good at sports) and generally didn't participate in too many sport related leisure activities.

Rollerderby

On the other hand, my mother loved sports. Oh, not the sports you'd watch on TV but as a teenager and a young woman she played fastball (and was good at it), she was even on a roller derby team. She loved roller skating, and ice skating, and swimming and a few other fun-type sports.

I liked roller skating, but wasn't good at it. Sort of clutzy. I enjoyed ice skating, but you're relegated to winter for activity, and I liked swimming. So I swam in the summer (my aunt's house had a nice pool), and skated in the winter. Sometimes I bowled with my dad.

But you don't do that every day. Going to highschool, hours of homework (yeah, back then there was a LOT of homework, not like today's), and I started babysitting to earn some money at 14. Spending time with friends is usually the thing that comes first when you have a little free time ... exercising isn't even on the horizon, let alone a priority.

Family ice skating.

The general phys-ed courses offered at school were ... things that caused me great embarrasment. Sure, I could actually play some sports like volleyball (I liked it, but wasn't great at it), and basketball (could never hit the basket, but I could play it). What I hated (even back then) was running, sprinting, pole-vaulting, doing sit-ups ... you know, the sort of things that mean you really need to be co-ordinated instead of clutzy.

Occasionally, gym class would consist of square-dancing, which was pretty cheesy if you ask me.

If I could find a way to get out of gym class, I would. I actually did have a doctor's note for me to sit out class if it involved running/sprinting because I had asthma as a kid, but by the time I was 15 or 16, I had outgrown that.

Needless to say, my lack of regular exercise and my own distaste towards physical activity did not endear me much to my mom, and certainly didn't help my body shape ... nor my self-image. By the time I was 15, I was looking for the magic pill ... that one-shot bullet that would forever make me thin and gorgeous.

Your intellect tells you that there is no such thing, and probably never will be. But your desire ... ah, that tells you that it is possible.

ONE, that's all it will take. Just one of those marvellous diets that promise immediate weight loss, with you looking like the next super-model ... there must be one, right?