For the love of running.

This is a picture of me and my brother. We work together, we go to the same gym, our kids are very close in age (my youngest is right in the middle of his 2) and we are only 10 months apart in age. Weirdly, we're very, very different people on some pretty fundamental levels.

Today at work, we were talking about my weight loss and increase in fitness, and he said "You'll be able to run all the way from work to home soon!"

Which really got me to thinking about why my response was "Meh, that's not really something I'm interested in doing."

One of the big differences between my brother and I is that he is very much an athlete. He's always played sports, always been a runner. Recently, he ran a fucking marathon! I am....not so much. Thinking on it today, I realized that the only reason I run is because it helps to accelerate and support my weight loss and will help me with being more toned when the weight is gone. It's a tool that assists me with achieving a goal. For him, it's running for the love of running. He genuinely enjoys it. I don't understand it, personally. I guess it's just a personal preference thing. It's not even that I don't enjoy working out at all, because I lovelovelove yoga, and I'll continue to practice yoga until I'm dead because it makes me feel really great. It helps to keep my anxiety under control and I love the feeling of stretching out my muscles and stuff. Maybe that's how running is for my brother.

Perhaps my reluctance to do things like running has contributed to my obesity over the years. If I'd been a runner like my brother, would my body have been different, and would I have had better control over my weight issues? I have no idea. Probably not. You can't outrun a terrible diet.

So....I've got a bunch of running ahead of me on this weight loss journey, but man....I can't wait until I don't have to do it any more.