May as well introduce myself...

[Eth]

Been lurking here for about four or five days, so it seems like as good a time as any to introduce myself to the Rebellion. So as not to bore y'all with a full dissertation, let's see if I can keep this short.

I'm a guy in my mid-20s who's always been a bit on the smaller side. As in, the "didn't break 120 pounds until college" smaller side. The one exception came a year or two after graduation when a combination of zero physical activity and what I suspect may have been intermittent depression joined forces to send me a little bit farther than I liked in the other direction. After changing jobs and moving back south last year, I decided it was high time to start setting things right.

With a part in a family member's wedding looming in February, I spent the first two months of this year doing body weight circuits (not that I knew that term at the time) and drastically reducing my calorie intake. In retrospect, I think I missed a good opportunity for some muscle-building there, but my only concern at the time was getting rid of the excess in the stomach area (I wasn't actually overweight, more "skinny fat"). I met the goal I'd set, and bolstered by this success, decided to keep going.

I shifted gears to a somewhat more tangible goal - there was a local 10k that I had from time to time idly pondered running someday, and this time I decided "to hell with it, I'm doing it". I went ahead and signed up. This was about 3 1/2 months before the race, and at that point I could just barely run half a mile without stopping. Nevertheless, I was determined, and with that dragon lying in wait for me growing larger and larger as I approached, the progress came. First one mile, then two, then (after an injury setback) three without stopping! Finally, the day of the 10k came - and I slayed the dragon, taking an hour and 13 minutes to do it. It was, without question, the biggest athletic accomplishment of my life.

So where to go from there? This was about a week and a half ago. A few days after the race, I was taking out the trash, a pretty mundane activity. As I kept switching the trash bag from hand to hand trying to keep my arms from getting tired, it hit me. I could run six miles, so why couldn't I do something as simple as taking out the trash or bringing in groceries without tiring myself out?

It's pretty obvious - it's time for me to finally, for the first time, build some friggin' muscle. And that is why I'm here.