getting to know me

Well folks and frogs, I have been getting reacquainted with my body over the last week. I feel as if we had been estranged from each other for ---well, let's say for a very long time now. I have been walking with Lucy in the morning for several years now, and I actually did it the Kaizen way, by first walking from the place where we played to the trash can to dispose of --well you know. Then when they moved the trash can, I walked a bit further to get there. Then when they took the can away altogether, at first I got in the car and held the bag out the window and drove around the park to another trash can, but after a while I began to think about adding the trashcan to our walk and so on, until I was walking the whole mile course around the park. Some days I would try to walk again in the afternoon, but found it either too hot, or too late by the time I got around it it, so I really didn't do it all that often. Even when I began to go to the nutritionist, I did'nt add much exercise to the mix, just started eating less.
But with the winning of Project Transformation, I made myself an oath to really dive into this with all four feet--remember, frogs have four feet. So I have followed the regimen of going to the gym and doing only cardio walking on the treadmill for that week for 20 minutes and the first day I was really bored. But the next day I had kind of figured out the treadmill and liked it a bit better, and I felt stronger and better, and b y Friday, I was feeling even better. I have to admit I took the weekend off, there was some of that apprehension that I had initially, about walking into something new. I know that there would be a lot more people around on the weekend and I wasn't really ready for that yet.
Yesterday, Monday I began a new week. As I am still learning how to go about this and fitting it into my life, I didn't make provisions for a light lunch, and ended up getting overly hungry and then eating potato chips. But I learned that I have to figure in some food. I am amazed at how good I feel just adding that extra 20 minutes of walking and how strong and energetic I feel. All those endorphins rushing around in my system. I am getting so much done at home too. I am doing things that have been on my "to do " list for ever, except now they are checked off. I am sleeping better and more soundly and I feel great.
Now, here is the kicker and why I wrote today. I also feel more mentally alert. I guess it is all that extra circulation that is bringing more blood to my brain. I have to recommend what I am doing to you. To feel physically stronger and mentally alert. What a combo! Of course there is still a long way to go, and I have yet to meet with my personal trainer. I will be meeting with her every week, and I suppose adding and varying my workout. Today is a pretty gloomy day, but Lucy and I walked, then I came home, cleaned the kitchen, did the laundry, and broke up the boxes that need to go into recycling and have been sitting out on the side of the house for weeks. I will spend some time brushing up on my language lessons that I have let languish, then a light lunch and off to the gym. I can see how this becomes addictive. How can it not when I feel so good. I think that it is the good feelings that are so addictive. I want to talk to the rest of the group and find out if they are feeling the same things. I think that maybe you had to have been estranged from your body for a while to feel this euphoria at reunification.
I wish I could explain more adequately how I feel. I didn't even realize how divorced I was from my physical self. It was like being a crab that changes containers as they grow. As I changed clothing sizes, the real me was left behind and I am finding myself. Not that the sizes have changed yet, it;s only the second week, but I feel as if I am on the road home.