Going Round in Circles

 I think the first thing to note here is that I am not, nor have I ever been, good at sport of any description. Ever. It's not like I never tried to be good at sport, I just never was. Having said that, I've always enjoyed exercise. I like walking, I always enjoy going to the gym, and I like swimming (apart from the bit where it involves water...). I'm just not very good at it.

So, for some reason I have decided to inflict the most awful torture on myself. I've decided I want to run the London Marathon.

There are several reasons for this stupid decision, the main being 'just coz'; I want to prove (mostly to myself) that I can do anything, if only I put my mind to it. I also want to prove, not to anyone in particular, that having MS isn't the death sentence that so many people seem to think it is. That you can still achieve amazing things. And lastly because improved fitness has been proven time and again to have such a broad range of benefits to people with MS (not least the keeping fit bit). There's more information here, here, and here about the studies that have been done in this vein.

This only leaves me with one mammoth task: training. How on earth do I go from being a size 18, almost completely sedentary student, to being fit enough to run a marathon?

So far, I have started attending spin classes at the uni gym, and sometimes walk to work (3 miles each way). Spin classes must be the first time I have ever found exercise relaxing. Which is weird. Especially when you consider how fast-paced and physically demanding spin actually is. In any case, I aim to go spinning twice a week. Walking to work happened every day for a week and a bit, although that stopped mid last week, after I went to spin in the evening after having walked to and from work earlier in the day, and I could barely do anything like what I usually manage. I'm still working on how I can incorporate both into my week without falling flat on my face.

Yet, despite all of this I'm still tipping the scales as obese. Which is frustrating. So in the fashion of so many other bloggers all over the place, I've decided that I'll use my blog as a way of documenting my progress, and hopefully inspiring me to do better. Come payday I'll be starting my own variation of the paleo diet, based loosely on the Best Bet Diet. Which means no gluten, no dairy and no legumes. I get the feeling that this is going to be the most difficult part of what I'm doing, so as with the exercise I'll start a little bit at a time. First to go will be dairy (I'll keep goat's and sheep's alternatives in to start with, and see how I get on), then legumes, then gluten. I'll have to start doing a regular post, so let's say weekly.

Wish me luck!