First post (Eeks!) Part I

Hello! My name is Kimberly, but friends call me Kimmie (or Kim). Nice to meet you. :)

Well, now that we've gotten those awkward introductions out of the way, let's delve into my first blog post. Shall we? Let me also say that at the moment, I am not what one would exactly consider "fit," but I can be considered fun, and am sometimes quite fabulous.

So a little background on me...

The early years:
I grew up in the lovely Chicago suburbs. Pretty standard household: older sister, younger brother, housewife mom, and businessman dad, and various pets throughout the years. I was the stereotypical "middle child." I never understood why my older and "sophisticated" sister was allowed to wear pantyhose and received jewelry for birthdays, while I was stuck wearing childish tights and got a doll that peed into a diaper if you gave it a "bottle." I was also highly jealous of my younger brother who ALWAYS got his way and enjoyed blaming me for things that I didn't do.

When I was 7, I decided that I wanted to be a famous gymnast when I grew up. This was probably because the summer Olympics had just ended, and I idolized the women that were able to jump, twist, flip, and leap so gracefully and effortlessly. Shannon Miller was my hero. This dream was the start of an 11 year journey that consisted of injuries, amazing friendships, great triumphs, depressing downfalls, and plenty of lessons that included more than how to do a standing back on the beam, giants on bars, a full-and-a-half on the floor, or a handspring on the vault. I learned how to push through fear, how to keep going with an injury, how to be a teammate and a leader, the value of persistence and repetition. I learned that perfection, while desirable in gymnastics, wasn't always attainable. These are still lessons that are part of my core, and I'm not sure if it's something I would have learned without those years spent in the gym.

Unfortunately, at that time, I didn't exactly learn how to appreciate my body. I took it for granted, abused it during practices, and never learned how to nourish it properly. And not to place blame on my family, but healthy cooking seemed to take a back seat to convenience. Sure, I learned about the (now outdated) food pyramid in class. I knew fruits and veggies were supposedly good for you. I tried not to eat too much food because I didn't want to look fat in a leotard, but I totally ate the wrong KINDS of food.  Pringles before bed, pizza and cake at parties, ramen noodles, pancakes, pasta parties, Milano cookies, pretzels with cheese, Ben and Jerry's, and Cheez-its are all foods I remember eating, a lot. I also never really listened when I was told that daily physical activity was vital, because duh, I was a gymnast. An athlete. I was in shape. I figured healthy eating and power walking was something I could figure out when I was old and wrinkly.

Suffice to say, I eventually realized that a healthy lifestyle was something that I would need to figure out BEFORE deep wrinkles set in...