Make a Fresh New Start for the New Year

New Years is really a great time to take advantage of the fresh clean start. It's your chance to reinvent yourself, make some new healthy habits, and/or start a new routine. It's the perfect time to forget about all the things that have held you back in the past or all the reasons why you've been putting off doing the things you want to do. There's no better time like the present to take action and there's no better time than now to start something new.

This year I am taking full advantage of this new start. It just so happens that it coincides nicely with my recovery. I haven't blogged about the details of my recent neck surgery, but at the end of October I had a couple of vertebrae in my neck fused and a metal plate inserted. Oh yes, that was a fun experience! But it was worth all the pain and discomfort because the terrible chronic neck, shoulder, and back pains that have been plaguing me and preventing me from practicing yoga and working out are now gone. I have rid myself of that torture, hopefully for good, and I'm so ready to get back on the yoga mat.

The bad news is that this whole surgery and recovery process has completely erased the great shape that I was in - that I have always been in. Now I'm in a foreign place. I'm weak and fragile and I don't know what to do with that. Where do I even begin to get back to my normal strong and healthy self? This will be a challenge to say the least, but I'm excited to take this journey. I am going to experience an unusual perspective of just how hard it is to "get into shape." Every winter I started my training program with P90X and I fell into it quite easily. I guess it's easy to get into better shape when you're already in good shape, but what is it going to be like to get back into good shape when I've been reduced to weak and fragile? This should be interesting.

I am going to share my journey via this blog. I will document my work-out program and all the steps I'm going to take to gain my strength and endurance back. I would imagine that this won't be overly easy at 44 years old, but I hope that my experience will inspire somebody out there.

Please stay tuned. With any luck I will be slipping off the neck brace and into some workout clothes next week for my maiden voyage. Wish me luck!