Joseph A. Darmiento

I can remember as a child waking up bright and early on that Sunday morning. I was so excited to start the day, even more than usual because well, it was Easter! It was going to be a day of celebration. Full of candy, family, more candy and of course a delicious ham with all the trimmings. When I first walked down the stairs I looked over at the table in the kitchen in wonder of all the magical colors of the holiday. The peeps, candy eggs and other colorful treats all wrapped in bright green grass nestled in those all too familiar wicker baskets. The same baskets that throughout the year I would trip over when I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing down in the basement.
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There are many mornings I turn over to look at the clock and think to myself, “I don’t want to work-out today!” I moan and groan looking at the minutes go by one by one, contemplating what the heck to do. As the minutes start moving quicker and quicker I know that if I miss that window of opportunity its all over. (more…)

There’s was a time when things were simple. Days that never ended and nights that were full of lightning bugs. The word exercise wasn’t in our vocabulary and it didn’t need to be because well, we were kids. I’d wake up on a summer morning, throw on a pair of shorts (that were actually quite short) and a pair of red and green stripped tube socks pulled up to my knees. I’d ru out the front door while listening to a voice yelling “Be home for dinner!”
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I’m a firm believer that everyone has their own right and wrong. What’s right for one isn’t always right for another. Weight Watchers was, and is still my “right” when it comes to losing the 75 pounds and motivating me to get active. That being said, there are so many roads to the same destination, and no matter what road any of us takes there’s one thing that they all have in common. WE NEED TO GET OUR BUTTS OFF THE COUCH AND MOVE! That’s why after a major staff meeting (me, my pup and the Betta fish) we’ve decided to change the name of the Blog to “The Couch To Gym Help Blog”
This Blogging thing has been a blessing to me. The support from everyone has been incredible and that I am thankful for. Okay enough blabbering, I’m getting off the couch and going outside to take the pup for a walk. She’s wants to talk Health benefits!

It was at mile 10 I believe when my legs started to turn to mush. I had trained for this race for 16 weeks and this was my first Half Marathon. Starting the race I knew I was ready. So why now at mile 10 was I not so sure? I kept on moving with barely enough strength to keep my head up when in a distance I spotted what appeared to be a robed figure on the sidelines. It was a priest holding his hand up waiting for me. I came upon him and with a high five he said “you can do this son I know you can”. As I passed him I looked at the runners that were near me and they seemed to have not even seen the high fiver let alone come in contact with him. What I do know is I kept going. I ran for 2 more miles and as mile 12 came up on me, once again I was hurting big time. I knew things would get better if only I could find another priest. That just wasn’t going to happen. Then as I started to climb a hill to the final stretch of the race I hit the shuffle button on my iPod and my mind was awakened to the theme song of the movie Rocky. At that point I went through the scenes of the movie in my head. He had the courage to go the distance and take the punches over and over again. That song brought me to the finish line that day and I wore my medal proudly. But besides the medal I took something from that race that I will always have, a lesson. I learned a few things about myself. I learned that if you have a challenge (who doesn’t) in your life and you lift your head and you look hard enough you’ll find that encouraging high five. And if you listen hard enough you’ll hear the words of determination and you will cross that finish line.

I woke up early on Thursday morning to get ready for my toughest run of the week, the tempo run. A tempo run is described in a nutshell as running a warm-up mile, then a stretch of miles running at very fast rate and ends with a cool down mile. The stretch of miles differs depending on where you are in the half marathon training program. This stretch was 4 miles at an 8:38 pace which is basically running 6.9 MPH for 35 minutes. As usual I was feeling positive about it. I was on top of my game lately. The past two weeks I was bringing my weight down little by little by skipping some meals here and there and notching up my training, something I knew was wrong but still loved to see the scale numbers drop. Little did I know I was (more…)

I know one thing. I hate hate hate muscle spasms! Just when your doing your walk, run, bike ride etc and feeling that your unstoppable, OUCH. Suddenly you’re stopped in your tracks to a knot in your calf or hamstring. For the next week you can barely walk and ice becomes you closest friend. Now you’re on the couch, bag of frozen peas strapped to your leg, digging into a bag of Doritos looking for the meaning of life. This is very disheartening. I know first hand. I’ve been there. When I first started (more…)