And So It Begins......

I recently found out trouble with the curve is a baseball term meaning someone who has difficulty hitting a curve ball.  I thought it was also a fitting title for a blog about facing and dealing with the curve ball's that life throws you and as such co-opted the term.

What inspired me to start this blog?

The fact that I have it all together and am awesome at providing sage advice?

Nope and Nope.

The impotence behind the blog was my recent decision to join a Corporate Fitness Challenge at work.   I would love to say that as soon as I heard about the Challenge I was all over it like a "sugar freak on a Smartie"....

I wasn't!!!!!!

When the Challenge was being explained to us, all I could think was "For the love of the Lord... why!  Why, did they not let those of us who will not be participating go so we could get lunch and check our emails!  This is tedious and torturous.  I walked out of the room feeling ornery!  I wanted to hit someone or something. It was safe to say a Fitness Challenge was positively, absolutely something that I would not be doing in my lifetime!

Later that week a curve ball caused me to rethink my original position.  I am taking part in a 365 Day Photo Challenge (something else that has caused me angst over the last year).  One of the challenges was to take a picture of "Too Small".  I thought and thought and came up with a plan to take a picture of my old Cheerleading outfit as I knew it would definitely be too small.

As I put the skirt around my thigh, I was faced with the concrete proof that the skirt, that used to fit around my waist, when I was a teen, only fit around one thigh with only 2" to spare.

UGGGHHH!!!

I know my cup has started to runneth over in the curve department, as I have aged, but a waist-sized thigh... say it ain't so!

You have probably heard of Helen of Troy-  the  face that launch a thousand ships.  I am not her.  I am the woman who has a thigh that launched a quest to find a semblance of the fitness level that I had in my youth.  

Proof that it did fit at one time.

Enter stage left... Corporate Fitness Challenge.  The Challenge ceased to be a heinous and instantly became a life preserver.  Something to motivate me to get off my flabby behind and start challenging myself to improve my health, my fitness and to find a balance between work and life.

The only problem.... a pre-health screen to take all my vital statistics height, weight, degree of wobble in my wobbly bits.

It was hard enough seeing the photographic evidence proving what years of neglect had done to my body.... I did not need more bad news.   I borrowed from "Frozen" for this one and decided to "Let it Go!"  The only place to go was up.  Any improvement was just that an improvement.

In the end I did better at the fitness screen than I thought I would.  However, I was not prepared for my traumatic flashbacks to Canadian Fitness testing in grade school.  At least there was no flexed arm hang.   I am also amused to report that over the last 30 odd years there has been little change in the flexibility in my hamstrings and my ability to do a push-up.  During the sit and reach the trainer commented that it would be easier to rest my finger-tips on the edge of the measuring device..... my reply...''Umm I am trying, but it does not seem like that will be possible right now!"

Yes dear reader-  it is true.  If it was possible to score negative numbers in the sit- and- reach I would.  My hamstrings have never been bendy.... okay they were for a very brief period when I was Cheerleading but they quickly retreated to Inflexible Land the moment I stopped needing to do the splits.

But my real kryptonite is any activity that requires me to use a tricep, deltoid.... heck who am I trying to kid.... any arm and shoulder muscle . Push-ups, well this ole' enemy continues to plague me.  When I was younger I held the belief that if I had bigger breasts I would have be able to do more push-ups.  See the bustier students did not have to bend their elbows to a full 90 degrees, as that may result in accidental grazing of the bustial region which would be deemed inappropriate touching.  Me-  with my lack of boobage, basically had to touch my nose to the ground and return to a fully up right position to count as a full push-up.  Sadly this long held belief was disproved during the recent testing.  I now have front curves and even though I don't have to dip down as low as I did when I was younger, I still could not muster more than 5 push-ups in a row and even that was pushing it.

Well here is hoping that the next six weeks brings about a few noticeable changes and maybe a smidgen more arm strength.... if not I will be typing out the blog using a mouth stick!