Hi, Teals!
Let's see, the short (??) story to my background in fitness:
Growing up, I was not at all athletic, and was one of those 'last one picked for the team in gym class' kids, who bombed the President's Physical Fitness tests! I much prefered reading and watching TV to being physical.
I never really got into fitness until around 1976, when I was in college, discovered a food co-op right about the same time I became interested in vegetarianism (for ethical reasons), and began to read voraciously about nutrition and vegetarianism. I became a vegetarian 'cold turkey', but relied a lot on dairy at first. Then a few months into reading more, I gave up most dairy and eggs, except for those contained in already-made foods. (I eventually went all vegan around 1992, but it wasn't as clear-cut a transition as becoming vegetarian.)
I began to work at the coop (becoming a co-manager) and some of that work involved unloading delivery trucks. One day, I was carrying two bags of flour or something into the coop, and when I dropped them off, someone asked me if I was okay. I wondered what they were talking about, and it turns out that I was carrying two, 50-pound bags instead of what I thought were two, 25-pound bags. They didn't feel that heavy! After being a wimpy kid, I was rather proud of that, and I began to get more interested in physical fitness: buying a yoga book that took me through a new pose each day for 30 days, and starting that, beginning walk/running 4 miles a day (in bad shoes, up and down hills...not a very enlightened choice!). I also picked up a weight set and began working with weights a bit (but not too much, thankfully, because I didn't know what I was doing, and if I'd gotten too much into it, I probably would have injured myself!).
Fast forward to grad school in the mid-80's, when first, I got some workout records (vinyl: remember that?! from Jane Fonda, Bess Motta and Joanie Griegans), then I got into riding my bike a lot (and eventually did a century ride...and finished it not with speed, but with persistance), and took a weight training class. One day, our regular teacher was absent (coaching some sports team) and a woman came in as a sub. She taught us more (and CORRECTED us) in 50 minutes than the rather uniterested male teacher did. I realized that he didn't know much! At least not enough to keep us from injury, so I went to pick up some books of my own (Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, some books by Rachel McLish and Gladys Portuguese) because I've always been one to want to learn as much as I can about things that interest me, and I've always been a reader.
From there, I started working out in the college gym, still continuing to read on health, diet and fitness.
I continued to workout (weight training and walking) until I got busy with my prelims and dissertation, ended up not working out much for about 3 years, then got into video workouts around 1992, when I had had a job (as a French teacher at a liberal arts college) for two years, and found that I'd gained 10 pounds in that time!
I started with Kathy Smith, Denise Austin (blech! one workout from her was enough to turn me off to her forever! When she did a 'wiggle' move off the step, I almost tossed the video right there!), Cher and others, doing step aerobics (I started with a soft foam step ---from Denise Austin---which I thought would be kinder to my bumb knee---a souvenir from my runniing attempts!), and picked up some Heavy Hands that I could use at 3# or 5#. I got my first Cathe workout (Step in Motion III) around 1993, and discovered this forum, VF and Collage video catalog at about the same time.
Since then, I've been pretty consistent in working out, though there have been times when I've gotten away from working out (for months at a time...once for almost a year, and I never want that to happen again, because what I saw in the mirror at a hotel at the end of that year grossed me out so much I got back into working out!).
I still do a lot of reading in vegan nutrition and fitness, and like to think of these fields as my avocation.
(Okay, so not so short!;-) )
