Naomi's Training Journal for Walking Across England

Welcome to my training blog as I get in shape to walk 200 miles across England along Alfred Wainwright's Coast-to-Coast Walk, next summer.  There are about 10 months between now (October 2013) and then (August 2014), and hopefully, this will be a faithfully written journal of the steps I'm taking to get fit enough to take on the challenge well.  In other words, that I do it in the fittest shape I've been in for 15 years! 

I turn 60 years old in March, 2014, and so I have even added incentive, and I'd like to be celebrating on that day (the halfway point of the 10 months) a healthy weight loss of about 40 lbs.  Too many years have passed with me "longing" to do this walk without taking CONSISTENT healthy actions to get fit enough to DO it.  All I can say is that I've been "stuck" for whatever reason or other.  The reasons are irrelevant, as knowing the why about something rarely has ever helped me take ACTION to change -- a lesson painfully acquired!  At some place along the way, I just got awfully stuck, but all things stuck can get unstuck, and I'm counting on an inner strengh I know I have and the grace of God to succeed this time around where I've failed before. 

Recently I watched a documentary about two overweight men -- one morbidly obese at 470 lbs! -- who underwent amazing physical, emotional and spiritual changes when they left out of their life the foods and habits that were killing them.  (You can watch the documentary here:  Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.)  These two men made the same decision and stuck to it.  A simple decision allowed each of them to break out of deep ruts they'd been prisoners in for years -- just like me, despite many well-meaning, dedicated "starts." 

I want to do what they did.
I want to succeed this time.

I want to post a photo of myself here in 10 months that will not look like I look today!

I pray for gratitude, humility and self-honesty to do it -- one day at a time.

What I'm presently reading:  In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.  I'm also reading Jack Frost's 2013 C2C Personal Journal, well written and inspiring
Inspiration of the day:  "With God all things are possible."