[This post is one in a series about my fitness journey. Consider starting at the beginning.]
I’ve always been a nerd and I will always be a nerd. And growing up a nerd up did not in any way prepare me for my fitness journey. Turns out that you can have muscles even if you don’t start in grade school with the jocks.
Imagine the most quintessential high school nerd stereotype: non-athletic, a loner, avoids all sports, and reads all the time. The only thing I was missing was the taped glasses. In my high school and junior high you had to either be in athletics and play some sport (football, basketball, baseball) or take physical education (PE). Not being a sports person at all, I took PE, taught by coaches who saw those of us in PE as degenerates who couldn’t handle real sports. To cap it all off I grew up in Texas in a very small town where everything revolved around the all-powerful football.
Because of that I’d never stepped foot into any sort of weight room until I went to college. Texas A&M had a brand new and really fantastic student rec center which had volleyball courts, basketball courts, racquetball courts, indoor track, a strength and conditioning room (weight room + cardio equipment), and probably tons more that I never knew about. I remember going into the strength and conditioning room and being overwhelmed with everything in there and not knowing where to start. It didn’t help that I was suffering from some major body-image issues, something that continued until 2016 and still does to some degree. I felt scrawny and ugly compared to all the buff college guys who were working out.
Really it wasn’t until I graduated in 2000 and moved to Austin to work for IBM that I ever entered a gym and didn’t turn around and run. I honestly can’t tell you what motivated me to get a gym membership and start going regularly, but that’s when my fitness journey really started.
Your fitness journey begins where you are, wherever that is. And frankly it’s a journey that lasts a lifetime even as your effort into it over the years ebbs and flows.
Next post: Finding a gym and making time
Digital Ramblings 
Casey I was the opposite. I was a jock in school playing a lot of sports and was always in the weight room. I graduated high school at 148 pounds. 30 years later I am 240. It was hard to adapt from constantly being active and eating what ever I wanted to working at a desk.
I am now making the gym a priority again not because I want to eat what ever I want, but because I find I am happier, and eat healthier when I realize how long I have to be on the elliptical machine to burn off anything bad I eat 🙂
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