THAT is the story I needed! I actually cried because in a lot of ways, you and I are the same! I used to hate to sweat too! And I was always chunky, but when I met my husband I guess I figured I had a license to eat or something?? I gained about 80 lbs which is WAY too much on my 5'1" frame! It was hearing my husbands great aunt say out loud at a wedding "BOY! She sure has gotten FAT" that threw me over the edge! We actually had to leave the wedding. I was so upset. But it also spurred me to get my act together.
I started with step aerobics. That was the "thing" that got me going. I loved it so much that I eventually got certified to teach. And then my grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer. I started run/walking on the treadmill to ease the stress of facing losing her. And then I decided that I was going to run a 10k in her honor, and then I became the 10k queen. The next thing you know it's 1999 and I get a wild hair that I want to run the NYC marathon. So I run a few of those, then I decide to get into triathlon, so I teach myself to swim laps. A ton of short distances later a co workers brother is doing Ironman Florida, and I decide that I want to do that too.. Next thing you know I'm crossing the finishline at IMAZ in 2006.
So yeah, those small things can lead to much bigger things. But if you had asked me in the early 90's when I was watching the Mark Allen/Dave Scott duels in Kona on the wild world of sports if I would ever fathom doing something like that, I would have fallen over in laughter.
Ya just never know!