I remember way back in 2004 I took an entire year (probably more like 6 months) and dedicated myself to sitting on the couch. Though I didn’t particularly set out to sit down, I found myself occupying my couch day after day. The Simpson’s reruns were showing regularly on TV, I found the joys of Neopolitan icecream milkshakes, and I started buying Chuckeye steaks instead of the normal lean breakfast steaks I had eaten for years.
The Year of The Couch wasn’t a protest or a grand statement but there was an underlying sentiment to why I turned my back on exercise for a short period of time. I was tired of being skinny. Actually, I wasn’t tired of being skinny but I was tired of other people telling me I was skinny. “I’ll just sit on the couch and get fat. That’ll show them. Hrumphhh.”
Not only was the Year of the Couch a dumb idea; it didn’t even work. I didn’t get fat. In fact, I hardly got out of shape at all. I may have gained 5 to 7 pounds and my abs were a little softer than normal but I barely showed any signs of outofshapeness. Boy, I really showed them didn’t I? After reentering my normal world of hyperactivity, I found myself in prime shape within a few months.
I want to compare that experience in 2004 with my experience of the last few months of 2011.
Yes, once again I have, unwillingly this time, dedicated myself to sitting on a couch…AT STARBUCKS!!! OMG! What have I done? I have probably been active less than a dozen times since August. Though I am still in decent shape, my body has suffered a worse fate than it did in 2004. I am noticeably softer, noticeably flabbier, and noticeably less inclined to run inclines.
The initiation of downward spirals often go unnoticed until the momentum is at a runaway pace. Luckily, I have caught this progression before it is too late (I hope). Yesterday, I hit the Enterprise South mountain biking trails hard with a nonstop full circuit. Today, I rode the riverwalk for 17 miles and ran 6 sets of inclines at the Chickamauga Dam all the while hearing the soft lull of “Tramond” beckoning me back to fitness.