I’ve never really made any fitness related resolutions. Oh, I’ve made the half-hearted “I should move more” goals, but never those really big ones that gym owners love, the ones that get people flocking on January 2nd to the nearest gym to sign up for a year-long membership. It wouldn’t do me any good anyway, I know from past experience that I really hate gyms in a major way.

The thing is, though, while I’m not looking to lose weight, I do miss the feeling of being fit. When I did kung fu so many years ago (I can’t believe it’s been ten years!), I had muscles, flexibility, balance (something I’d never had before, not even when I did ballet!), and stamina. Now I get tired so easily, I have less energy than I ever remember, and while I may be small I have no tone. None. I am a noodle.

I still had no real concrete plans to, you know, do anything about it. And I’m not completely sedentary. I do a fair amount of walking thanks to the kids and the dog, and when you have 35 steps to climb up and down each time, that helps too. But I know I need more.

So enter Laura. I went to her blog solely because I know she’s been doing Holidailies as well and thought she might have a new entry. She did indeed, and in it, she mentioned that she had signed up for the SparkPeople Boot Camp. To put it simply, the Boot Camp offers up a workout video each day for a month, starting today. They mix it up so that you aren’t always doing the same thing over and over again (which is why I have several workout tapes that are covered in dust). Today’s video incorporated a bit of kickboxing, something that I obviously can enjoy what with the roundhouse kicks and sidekicks that I used to love.

The videos are only ten minutes long and that includes the warm up and cool down time. It’s not hard to fit into my schedule no matter how busy I think I am. Aside from that, they encourage 30 minutes of any type of cardio five days per week. Since I walk the dog for 20-30 minutes once or twice a day, that’s not a problem.

So I signed up. I did it for a lot of reasons. The main ones are that I want to be fit again. I want to FEEL like I’m in shape and not be so tired all the time. I’m sick of the panic attacks but I’m still scared of medication so I’m going to try exercise as a non-medicinal approach. Also, if you’ve ever been pregnant, you know that frustrating ache in your calves that come from nerves being pushed around by a baby, especially the sciatic nerve. Well, with Breanna I waited and waited to give birth so that ache would go away. Three years later, I’m still waiting for it to go away. Hopefully some regular exercise will do something to help.

If you want to join me or if you’re already a SparkPeople member, you can see my page here. Let me know if you’re doing the boot camp challenge too, even if you join up later than the 4th of the month.

Here’s hoping I can do this – they say it’s 21 days to build a habit right? Let’s see.