Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Getting in Shape

Late last year several of my writer friends had debut books releasing soon and were getting ready to promote the books and themselves. I wondered what I'd do in their place, wondered how I'd promote myself and how I'd react to needing to do so. I'm shy and unsure of myself, after all.

But, I realized, if I really want to be a professional writer, I have to do certain things despite being shy. And one of those things is to gain more self-confidence. The easiest way for me to feel more confident is to know I look good.

So in December I started walking almost every single night, two miles at minimum. I started to feel the health benefits almost immediately, which made it easy to keep up. At some point I bought a pair of five-pound hand weights and started doing arm exercises too. And I added sit-ups to the mix--not every night, but I try. I started with five sit-ups, increased to ten sit-ups after a week or two, increased to fifteen, and so on. I'm up to fifty sit-ups now. Yeah, me, the girl who this time last year was worried about my health because I was in such bad shape.

I haven't lost all that much weight by the scale, but I can tell a huge difference in my body. I've gone down two pants sizes. I feel better. I hike a lot and every night when I walk, I try to run at least short distances. And yeah, I've got a lot more confidence.

Has it helped my writing? Not directly (although it's nice to know I probably won't keel over at the computer). But when it's time, when I have to get out there and get loud about myself, I'll be ready. And I will have some damn cute clothes, too.

6 comments:

Kelly Robinson said...

Good for you! It's sort of like writing, isn't it? You have to make yourself do it even if you don't feel like it, set small, reachable goals, etc.

I glutted myself on food on a trip to Ireland, but I've lost 12 pounds since I got back. I think I'm back on track again, and it's long overdue.

(Now if I can only get caught up on blog posts!)

K.C. Shaw said...

Yes! Small, reachable goals--and at some point (I'm getting there) it's so ingrained that it becomes not just easy, but normal.

I'm so out of touch I didn't even realize you'd been to Ireland. Lucky!

Unknown said...

Buy a Swiss ball - those exercises are really fun, and effective. You can do squats, push-ups etc all using the ball, and you can use the ball as the bench when doing weights.

K.C. Shaw said...

But where would I put the ball? I suppose it would fit in the garage, but then it would get covered in spiders.

Cate Gardner said...

I heart this post. I've been doing the same and have dropped seven stone and discovered a love of hiking. I thought I'd never go to places were there was mud.

K.C. Shaw said...

Too bad we don't live closer together (like, on the same continent). We could go hiking!