Here we go! - The weigh in and the workout

It is Day 1 of the training program and I am psyched up and ready to go. Dalya and I arranged that on Sundays and Fridays we would run together in Raánana and then the other 3 days of training we would do on our own. Although the Learn to Run training program said that the first day of the week (Monday for them) was a rest day, we decided to start on Sunday and yet keep Monday as a rest day. So in the morning I packed my gym bag, headed to work and spent the day counting down the hours until I would meet with my sister and begin training.

We had also decided that we wanted to make a proper record of the change not only to our fitness, but also to our bodies so we decided that Sundays would also be weigh-in day.

I will be honest, I was a little nervous. I had not gone to the gym for over two months and I knew that I had put on some weight, but as my scales at home had run out of batteries I had no idea how much weight I had put on.

Stepping onto the scales I held my breath and hoped that by some miracle I had only put on a kilo or two. But when I looked down I found that I had in fact put on a total of 7 kilos, approximately 15 pounds. I could not believe it. Tears weld up in my eyes and I just wanted to give up then and there. Dalya stepped on the scale and was also disappointed. We had both let ourselves go and in so doing had let ourselves down.

I thought about getting back in my car, driving home and getting into bed to cry, but then I looked at the training book I had put together and saw the pictures on the front cover. The first was a picture of myself just before I moved to Israel, my fat picture. It was taken when I was at my heaviest. The second was a picture taken a year later, just before I went back to England the first time, when I was at my lightest. I was now somewhere between the two, and I realised that I had a choice. I could go home, give up, feel sorry for myself and carry on heading back down the old road to my old self, or I could face my fears, stop beating myself up and instead of feeling sorry for myself start to think positively about myself. I was making a positive change and I at least owed it to myself to see it through and give it everything I have.

I carried on as planned and we next took 'before shots'. As I said we wanted to record this journey properly and therefore to see how far we would ultimately come, we wanted a proper record of where we were. So here is where we are, or at least where I am because although I may be enough of an exhibitionist to put my vital statistics for the world to see, I don’t expect the same of Dalya… not without her permission anyway. (Deep Breath):

Channah Graham
Weight: 97.1 Kilos
Height: 158 cm




















So we headed out on our first walk. Ten minutes warm up followed by thirty minutes speed walking and then a ten minute cool down. Dalya had the watch and was therefore in charge of our work out, so all I had to do was do as I am told… I am getting good at that. So as Dalya was the boss I was left to concentrate on just walking and of course to obsess over my ridiculous weight gain. How did I put on the weight so fast? Did I really eat that much? Maybe it was just because I stopped training for so long. Maybe I was more stressed about my Dad getting sick than I thought. Maybe I am just naturally gluttoness and lazy. Not really how I would like to be described or seen to be. So I guess if I don’t want to be seen that way I should do something about it.

Besides, I reminded myself, why did I decide to do this in the first place? I wanted to do something positive, spread awareness of Colon Cancer, while at the same time get myself in shape and I guess prove to everyone that I could. So why on earth would I quit?