C25K

C25K stands for "Couch Potato to 5 K," and it's a program to help inactive people ("Couch Potatoes") get off the couch and get active.  The idea is that if you can run for 60 seconds, you can get yourself into shape to run a 5K race in a couple of months.  Let me be clear about something:  I'm not a couch potato.

I'm one of those typical suburban moms who used to be fit as can be.  I ran 5K races.  I played sports.  Back in the day, I could haul 100 pounds of hog food from one end of a building to another - 50 pounds on each shoulder.  That was then.

Once I had kids, I was still in pretty good shape, carrying them and chasing after them day after day.  Even when Drew was in first grade, I could still lift him up above my head and carry him on my shoulders.  Over these last few years, however, I have felt everything shift.  All the kids are in school all day, every day.  They are too big to carry.  Instead of hanging out with the kids in the park and running around with them, I am driving them from one end of Oak Park to the other.  The week before school started, I logged an impressive 14 hours in the car.  That's when it hit me:  I'm not a couch potato; I am a car potato.  The older I get, the less active I have become, and the pounds have started creeping up on me.  I think it's tacky to speak about weight gain in actual numbers, so I will just tell you that I'm within eight pounds of the weight I was the night I delivered Kelsey.

I don't like being out of shape, and carrying the extra weight isn't much fun either.  This week I'm starting the C25K program.  My goal is to run the Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago on November 5th.  Stay tuned.