A single step?

I started training for the 3-Day walk this morning in a small way -- by walking to work, 1.5 miles, with my Nordic walking poles. I used to do this every day, but then my mother died in December and then all the excuses to not walk started popping up: "It's too cold", followed by "It's too hot", and the ever famous "I need five more minutes of sleep". All the excuses to eat the wrong foods followed -- actually, there's only two of those: "I deserve this ice cream bar", and "I'm stressed".

I suspect that anyone reading this (with the exception of those three blessed individuals in the world who can eat everything and not gain weight) can identify with this situation. Welcome to life as an overweight American in the 21st century. But it doesn't matter how understandable my rationalizations are, nor how easy it is to follow my all-too-human biology and choose leisure, sugars, and fats -- the result is that I have gained weight and lost physical fitness.

To be truthful, I have always been overweight, except for the times (like now) where I am obese. I will probably always be overweight. But there was a time in my life when, as one of my students put it, I could "walk up a wall and not get tired". And that was the first time I started training for a 3-Day Breast Cancer walk.

For anyone not familiar with this event, a 3-Day Breast Cancer walk is a fundraising event where individuals raise over $2000 for the privilege of walking 20 miles in a day, and then turn around and do it again for two more days.

Why, in Heaven's name, would anyone do this? I can think of many reasons: As a rite of passage -- I turn 45 next month, and I want to do something phenomenal to celebrate the fact that I made it this far. As a testimony to the power of a dream -- the dream of pushing oneself past one's comfort zone. As sacrificing oneself for a good cause -- I know many women my age and younger who are surviving breast cancer, and some who have not survived it. If I can do something audacious like raise $2300 (this year's goal), then I'll do it. And, selfishly, as a way of getting back to that level of wellness I never thought I could achieve.

I took my first step this morning -- actually, about 3000 steps according to my pedometer.