The First Mile

On Sunday I did my first mile in the local park.  I can just hear you now... "oh wow, a mile - big deal."  Okay, maybe it's not you I'm hearing - it's really me. Now that I feel better, I think I should be back to normal in all ways.  I'm not. That mile was an eye opener. Not only am I so out of shape after undergoing cancer treatments for the last 6 months, I am also becoming reacquainted with the fact that doing a mile really burns very few calories.  It takes many miles to build muscle and burn flab. Yes, I'm back to obsessing about my weight again. I must be getting back to normal.

My months of being much less active than normal have really caused some problems for me.  I have no muscle tone, yet those same muscles are so tight that the term limber describes exactly what I am not!  How can muscles be soft yet tight at the same time?  That is just not right!

I thought about my punching bag in the garage.  I think that using this to get into shape is a great idea.  Not only can I develop muscle tone again, I can get rid of some pent up frustration by beating something up.  Yes, I'm talking about the punching bag and not about some random person.  Although, I may not want you to mention that to my son.  I prefer to have him wonder if it's him I might be going to punch.  Okay - out to garage I go to start working out with the bag.

I realized there are a few things that have to happen before I can start beating up the bag.  I need to find my sparring gear.  I have two full sets of sparring gear....somewhere.  You wouldn't think it would be to hard to find them, but keep in mind I am able to lose whole vacuum cleaners for weeks at a time.  I have found one set of hand pads so at least I can start working on my punches.  Kicking will have to come later, after I find my foot pads.

Now, I'm ready to go but there are a few more minor details that need to be taken care of before I can start working with the bag in the garage.  There is a mattress set out there that needs to go to the dump.  I'm sure someone can do that for me.  Oh, and then there are the 4 or 5 old CRT monitors that are out there.  I guess they should go too. There is also an old entertainment center, a coffee table, old computers and a TV or two that need to go.  This is beginning to be a bigger project than I initially thought.

I better take a good look at what's out there standing in the way of my work out.  It's funny, I remember when cars used to be in the garage.  Now there are just lots of non-car things in there.  I see many boxes belonging to a couple of our adult kids....hmm...surely these can be moved.  I see a couple of buffet tables, many empty boxes, some chairs and an old suitcase.  Where did this stuff come from??

This has now become overwhelmingly difficult.  Maybe we should just build a new garage for my punching bag.  That may be a little extreme.

How did I end up in this predicament anyway? Oh yeah, I got cancer. That's why I'm out here trying to figure out where all this junk came from and how I can get rid of it!  If I wouldn't have gotten cancer, I wouldn't have just done that mile, which in turn let me know I have no muscle tone, which led me to think about my punching bag, which got me out in the garage.  I wonder if I can get my health insurance to pay for a garage organizer since this whole thing is directly related to my cancer treatments...hmmm....