I got a phone call at home. It was the doctor.
The doctor NEVER phones me, at home or anywhere else. He told me that my recent blood test had shown there was a 20% risk of me having a heart attack because I weighed 16 stone, had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Question: Would you do anything about it? Or would you take the medication he wanted to prescribe?
I'll take the first option, I said.
Ok, he said. We'll give you 6 months, see if you can loose some weight, then we'll re-evaluate.
So here I am, 2 years on, 14.5 stone with normal blood pressure and cholesterol. (Yes, there's lots more to loose...)
Did I hit the salad and circuit training straight away? No chance. I lasted 2 weeks on my health kick and stopped. Not much will power there I hear you say! And you'd be right of course.
So if it wasn't the threat of a heart attack that made me change my lifestyle, what was it?
Well, it was a challenge. A challenge that people had heard me say. Whether they thought it was important or not... it was important to me, and there was no way I was letting myself down. Not on this one.
What did I say I would do? A 5k Parkrun. Easy, I thought.
There was only one problem. I couldn't run 1k. Let alone 5. I tried a test run and stopped, shins hurting badly after just half a mile. So off down to the local running shoes shop. And off I went again. It took me at least 2 months to get up to 5k without looking like a shabby mess at the end. So I went for it. 36 minutes later, I had done it! Challenge complete. And the best bit? One of the lads who had heard me state my challenge (and forgotten about it) was there running as well, and had no idea I'd been training for it.
So... was that it? Erm... No. Why? Because somewhere along the line, during the evenings of training for my challenge, I'd started to enjoy it, and it had dawned on me why a lot of people do it. I actually liked it! Next thing, I found myself (shaking) signing up for a 10k race. First ever.
As of right now, I'm planning a half marathon, a cross country mud run and a marathon for next year.
The morale of the story? Forget trying to use will power alone, challenge yourself, in front of people you know preferably, and there is no end to what you can achieve. Including reducing heart attack risk!
Enjoy running everyone. It's changed my life.
Challenge yourself, it's the only way
