[Blindtlk] my new crazy idea

[Julie J.]

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday!  We had a fairly quiet dinner at home with family, opened presents and ate way, way, way too much food.  I still have most of a cheesecake in the refrigerator, which brings me to my newest crazy idea.

I’d like to start some sort of fitness group.  I don’t want to join my local gym and I don’t know anyone locally who would be interested in long, brisk walking for fitness.  However, I know that I benefit a lot when I have people to be accountable to and a group that supports each other in a common goal.  I have a business group and have made a lot of progress in that area, due in part to having that group.  

So I’d like to find a handful of other people who are committed to fitness and want to actively pursue that.  I haven’t sorted out all the details of how exactly this would work, but I’m thinking we could have phone conferences to discuss our progress or to actually do our exercise while chatting, by walking or lifting weights or whatever suits each person.  I’ve had email groups in the past and that has been helpful, but it doesn’t last.  I’m hoping that the smaller group with a more personal connection via phone would keep us connected long term.

All the individual components, diet, exercise method, weight loss goals, and all of that would be individual to each person.  So if one person wanted to walk 30 minutes a day and eat one more vegetable daily and another person was going to drink a green smoothie for breakfast and lift weights, this would still work.  The phone group is for accountability and support, not instruction on what to do.

It would also be a way for people to share blindness specific ideas on how to go about operating the equipment at the gym or accessible aps for calorie counting and that sort of thing.  I am aware of the Sports and Rec list and if someone wants to post this there, you are welcome to do that.  That list has been a great resource.  I want this phone group to be smaller, more personal and more about support.

Things I’m looking for in people that want to join:
available time, for the phone conferences as well as personal fitness goals
willingness to commit long term, let’s say one year of committed effort
sane and realistic goals, no starvation diets, no run until you drop
if you need to consult a doctor or other professional, please do that, I’m no substitute and do not want to represent myself in any way shape or form as any sort of health professional
and perhaps most important, I want people who will be kind to each other.  No food shaming, no fat jokes, no excessive bragging on how much you can lift or run or whatever.
If this sounds like something you’d like to participate in, please email me at: julielj at neb.rr.com
I’ll collect email addresses this week.  Next weekend I’ll send out a phone number and instructions on how to join the conference.  We can sort out all the details on that call, like frequency of meetings, times, additional member requirements, desire for an email/facebook/whatever group and anything else that comes up.  This is entirely free, excepting any phone charges, internet connection, computer etc.   I want to get this started, but I don’t want to be any sort of leader or person in charge.  All members will have an equal share in the group.

Keep being awesome!
Julie