5 Months ,1 Week, 2 Days

Ok, dear readers (yes, all 6 of you, you know who you are), so this is where it gets personal. And well, kinda serious .

With tomorrow being January 1st, the first day of 2012, I have abandoned all semblance of being unique and creative by choosing IT as the first day of my reinvented journey prepping for and toward a 10 day biking trip starting June 9 along the pilgrimage route of (el?) Camino de Santiago in Spain- the final destination being Santiago de Compostela cathedral and personal redemption. Or a lot of Spanish wine, whichever comes first.

Now the down and dirty of it is:

- I am not in shape

- I have like 30 lbs plus to lose *

and lastly..

-I am not in shape.

*(and that's being kind to my pride, it's way more. But let's be realistic about what I need to lose to bike without being felled by a stroke, a coronary, daily tire blowouts straining from their extra burden, or the heartbreak of humiliation when I can't keep up with the rest of 'em)

I talk the talk here in my blog about taking risks and facing fears and blah blah blah, but I have known about this trip for well over a year and and have not been consistent with the fitness program I REALLY WAS GOING TO COMMIT TO last August. Yup I did a WHOLE lotta prep on paper for it- charts, graphs, projected goals..but didn't sustain it in a consistently big way, making the usual excuses of stress, time, fatigue.

I let Life get in the way of getting a Life.

We often make the hugely misguided error of opting for the act of 'pampering ourselves' to look like the exact opposite of what would make us feel really really great. An overindulgence never actually feels as good as the perk of piousness brought on by undeniable self-control and self-discipline in the face of temptation. The exhilaration of a good sweat after a tough workout, the hint of a knawing hunger in your belly because you actually let it get hungry enough to um..knaw. Do you ever get a little rush when you say no to the bad-for-you and yes to the good-for-you?

So yes, this is it. This is where I put the pedal to the metal, like for real. And by telling you, I risk making a fool of and embarrassing myself beyond what I could bear if this becomes just another cheerleading rah rah as the game begins that I always feel certain I will win, based solely on the enthusiasm of my rah rah. But at some point ya gots ta play the fricking game, in order to win it!

I've simplified the New Year's Resolution thing into one mantra for 2012 : Every Move A Healthy Move. And that means physically, economically, socially, morally, spiritually, any " ----ally" you can think of. When given a choice, just do the right thing to be healthy. Or if you want the abbreviated version, "Just do it"-like Nike has been telling us for what seems like forever.

This is where I actually get to experience an incredible opportunity to hold on for the ride of my life! And so I ask myself, barring injury, can I do it? I've heard that when trying to get out of doing something by saying ' I can't' we are really saying ' I won't ', which only requires a sprinkle of insight, rapidly followed by a dash of attitude adjustment to turn it into an ' I will' (um who died and made me Mary Poppins )

So, once AGAIN, can I do this thing? You may want to follow me along the way to find out.

(Teaser Alert: And we all know this journey isn't just gonna end up being about getting ready for a bike ride..)

Well I hit the rowdy road and many kinds I met there

Many stories told me of the way to get there

So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out

There's so much left to know, and I'm on the road to find out

-Cat Stevens