The Unrunner’s Guide to Running Races

I’m excited to start a new series of guest posts about normal people and their experience with real life exercise.

Enjoy this first post by the lovely Erin Pollet! Tip #3 made me laugh out loud.

The Unrunners Guide to Running Races

By Erin Pollet

Recently I ran a 10K for the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas’(HWNT) scholarship fund. I placed 2^nd in my age division and ran a personal best 10:57 minute mile. For those real runners out there, you know this is not very fast, but I’m not a real runner. I run, but since I don’t train faithfully or keep track of how many miles I go per week I consider myself an “unrunner.” It’s easy to become an unrunner, and it’s really fun if you don’t let the real runners intimidate you.

Tip #1 Pick a race.

My running partner Monica and I were planning on running a half marathon on March 4^th. We’d been planning to run that race since January, but we just did not train enough to run 13 miles. So we googled “San Antonio running races calendar” or something like that and came up with the HWNT’s Lace Up scholarship race. The charity meant zilch to us as neither one of us is Hispanic or in need of scholarships, but it was on the right weekend, and it was a 10k. Races are NOT cheap, but it does ease the blow that most of them are for a good cause. You can choose one that means something to you personally or, like us, just choose one that is convenient. I do recommend picking a race about 1 month to 6 weeks away. Any farther than that and it really doesn’t loom over you enough for motivation.

Tip #2 Just get out and run.

There are many, many articles about running schedules: speed work, tempo running, interval running, etc. If you want to be a real runner, by all means, pick a schedule and get out there. If you want to be an unrunner, there isn’t really a schedule to follow, just some guidelines. I run for whatever amount of time I have to run. If I don’t feel like running the whole time, I walk, but my body is moving for a certain amount of time.

My personal goal for every race, however, is that I want to run the whole time. So on the weekends I try and run for at least the amount of time it would probably take me to run the upcoming race.  5k is about 30 minutes, 10k is about an hour, etc. During the week I run when I can, or I cross train (a real runner’s word for “doing something else besides running”). Cross training for me is spin class, but any aerobic class or weight training will do.

Tip #3 Have friends with athletic injuries.

The morning of the race, I woke up to find a message on my phone that Monica was backing out. She had hurt her knee at a soccer game the night before and would not be able to run. I was pretty bummed out about having to run this race alone, but honestly I am very lucky that I have the type of friend that is athletic enough to get injured.

Monica was there when I started running. She’s run for at least 20 years, and in my mind could probably run non-stop a la Forrest Gump if she wanted to. She would run with me when I could only run for 30 seconds and then walk for 20 minutes to catch my breath. She would run like that, drop me off at home, and go out and run for 45 minutes to get her actual running in. For all that, I still consider her an unrunner because she runs just to run with no schedules or goals in mind besides “I can drink a beer tonight without feeling like a lard ass.” Everybody needs a friend and running buddy like her.

Tip #4 Use your clothes to gauge how you’re doing.

I’ve never run a race all by myself before, but I know that the first thing I have to do is find the packet pick-up area. This is where you get your number, chip (the little hard plastic piece that keeps your time), and your t-shirt.  Yay, t-shirt! Unfortunately the shirts are those athletic types made with breathable material and run way too small.  I stupidly ordered a large, but I pick up Monica’s too (since she already paid) and she ordered a XL.  I’m soooo keeping her shirt.

According to shirt size, I’m not doing so hot.

Tip #5 Choose your starting position wisely.

Real runners should be near the starting line. Walkers should be in the back. Unless you want to get run over, I suggest picking a point somewhere in the middle. If you are surrounded by men with tiny shorts and shaved legs…move back. If you’re standing next to a white haired lady with a walker…move up.

Tip #6 Make new friends.

Unrunners run races for fun. Running faster than the person next to you is FUN. Real runners are there to beat their own times. Since I don’t really keep track of the time as I’m running the race, all I’ve got is the person in front of me. I hate that person with every fiber of my being. During this race it’s a red- haired girl that looks like a girl I used to work with. That girl quit and left us in a bind, and I hate that girl for what she did. I will not let her doppelganger beat me! I see her up ahead of me at about mile 4, and from that point on my one goal is to catch up with that girl, overtake her, and cross the finish line before she does.

Remember this…hate motivates!

Tip #7 Pace yourself.

The first couple of races I ran, I made the mistake of taking off as fast as I could from the starting line, or I tried to sprint the last half mile to the end. Neither strategy has worked. I’d just wear myself out and then struggle to finish. During this race I keep a steady pace with short bursts of energy as I go up the hills. It pays off as I notice that red-hair girl is starting to walk. I know that she is wearing down, but instead of speeding up and trying to overtake her right away, I hang back and bide my time. As we make it past the 5 mile water station she’s walking, and I pass her by. With a burst of speed she sprints past me again, but I know she’s on her last leg now and can’t hold out that fast. Sure enough, she starts walking again, and I pass her by at my nice, steady pace.

As I see the finish line up ahead, I do speed up a little…just to look good for the crowd. As I cross I look back to see Miss Red-Hair crossing just seconds after I do. I want to thank her for motivating me.  I don’t REALLY hate her, but I’m not sure how she would take it if I said, “Hey, if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have finished so well. Thanks for sucking a little worse than me.”

Tip #8 Take whatever they offer.

Refreshments! The 2^nd best thing at a race after the t-shirts. I’ve done beer runs (free beer!) and pancake runs (free pancakes!), but most of the time you get fruit, cokes, Gatorade, juice, cookies, or free samples of sports bars. Take one of EVERYTHING. You paid for it, and you earned it. Plus, you may not realize this, but you are going to feel like absolute garbage in a few hours if you don’t eat lots of carbs and drink tons of water. The earlier you start eating, the better you’ll feel later. So stuff your face!

Tip #9 Don’t downplay your accomplishment.

Since I was by myself, I shoveled in some sliced oranges, a delicious Texas shaped gingerbread cookie, drank a diet coke and left, but usually I’ll wait around for the results of the race.  I checked my results online the next day. Always look at the results. It’s really gratifying to see that you didn’t come in last, and believe me, unless you walked like a zombie the whole time, you did NOT come in last. Post your results on Facebook. Put that bumper sticker from your packet on your car. You did it! I am always motivated by hearing about other people’s successes, so if you feel like you’re bragging, just think of how many people might get out and start running because of YOUR story.
Tip #10 Choose your next race right away.

Go home and pick a race a month away. It doesn’t have to be a longer race, just something to keep your motivation up. I’m looking at one called the Sunset Wine Tour which is an evening race with free WINE! I just hope there’s a nice t-shirt.

Erin Pollet lives in San Antonio, TX with her husband, 2 kids, a couple of guinea pigs, and a giant poodle. She’s one of “those old people” at San Antonio College where she’s majoring in Biology, and works as a registered polysomnographic technologist, which sounds very impressive when it’s written out in a bio. When she’s not running she enjoys reading big, intimidating books and looking at pictures of dead people online. She is in no way a “normal” person, but can pass for one most of the time.

sacrifice…

For a number of people the early Spring brings with a time of “fasting” for religious reasons. For others the “fast” is more for physical reasons, warmer weather is coming and those short sleeves and pants are making cranky noises from within your closet, aren’t they?

Personally, I follow a religious tradition which offers up a time of fasting, 40 days give or take, during which I will basically eat like a vegan. It’s a sacrifice because although I can live for months without meat products for the most part I love cheese and eggs. A lot. A whole lot.  Add to that the fact that my cooking repertoire is already limited, this season can add a layer of cranky to my otherwise sunny disposition.

Whether you are fasting this spring for faith reasons or to clean out the winter body blues you are going to run up against some sacrifice.

The word, ‘sacrifice’ shows up with this definition first:

The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or a person.

Lucky for you, we’re not talking about that kind of sacrifice today. The next definition is more fitting I’d say:

Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

As you start down the path to a detox or a prayerful fast I want you to take notice of some things to start connecting the dots between what you eat (or don’t eat) and how you feel, what you think, what you crave, how it affects the whole of you!

1)At the start of your fast, what do you imagine your sacrifice to be? Physically? Emotionally? Spiritually?

2)When you think about that “sacrifice” can you put a picture in your head of what it looks like?  Give it shape and form. Does it look like a Twinkie (I like Twinkies, obviously) or an anvil in your gut? Does it look threatening or comforting, the thing you are sacrificing?

3)If you could name in JUST ONE WORD the goal of your fast, what would it be?

4)Going through your fast, keep a journal. Write down how your answers to the above questions change as you progress. No one needs to see this but you so be honest with yourself.  If you want to quit then write about that. If you want to cheat then write about that. If you feel great then write about that! It doesnt’ have to be long, just a sentence or two.

Are you embarking on a fast this month?? Speak out! Would love to walk alongside…

 

loving the belly…

I love my belly. I have to remind myself to love my belly but I do love my belly. I have to remind myself not to make that heavy sigh when I sit down and see it peeking out at me over my low rise jeans.  When will high rise jeans come back into fashion? That’s what I want to know.

I have to remind myself to love my belly whenever I get those side ads on my Facebook page giving me ideas on how to get rid of my “muffin top.”

I have to remind myself to love my belly whenever I get emails telling me the best way to reduce my waistline or increase my bustline or Lord knows…

There is no legitimate get rich program for the body. All the changes in my body took place over time, over meals, over snacks, over couch sitting, over baby sitting, over baby making. All the changes that take place in my body took time to build and if I want to make a change in my body I have to do it over time and with a lot of patience.

And patience? Patience comes with the reminder that I love my belly.  Maybe it’s not like this for you, maybe you have to choose “action” first and belly love second. You know yourself a lot better than I do, better than anyone does, really.  I have to remind myself to love my belly not because I never want to “get rid of my muffin top”  but because this is the belly I have now and forever, no matter how much of it falls over the top of my low-rise jeans. I have to start with loving the body I have because when I love the belly, I take better care of it. Reminding myself to love my belly or my thighs or my flabby arms reminds me that it is worth my attention, worth my consideration, worth my care. I am my belly and my thighs and my flabby arms.  I am worthy of care.

Shame.

You know who’s awesome? This lady.

Bookieboo…

In real life she goes by the name of Leah Segedie and she’s a dynamo. I met her last year at Blissdom, a kind of shangrila for wild, passionate blogger types.  I had intended to join the “writer” track at Blissdom. At one point last year the large group broke up into smaller groups for discussion, support, questions, interests. I made a bee line for the “writers” because, you know, I’m a writer.  Before I got far I noticed the vibrant red-head dancing on a table and shouting, “Come over here! Come on! Fitness! Here!” She may have been singing too. I can’t be sure. I could not help but admire her enthusiasm and her vitality. I told you, she’s a dynamo.  And so I gravitated to her table. I’m a writer but I’m also a personal trainer and a mind/body fitness class leader so when the vibe beckons, I follow. In this case, Bookieboo beckoned and I followed. She’s got that Pied Piper quality about her and it’s a good thing too because she leads men and women to healthy lives every single day through Mamavation. So check that out, eh?

This post isn’t really about Leah Segedie though. It’s about shame. I’m writing it because Bookieboo asked me to and I simply cannot tell that woman “no.”  So here it is.

This ad runs in Georgia:

You can and should read Leah’s post about it here on her site.

When I got the message from Leah asking me to help bring awareness to this I started crying, not because I was this kid but because my best friend was this kid and because throughout life women I have loved and continue to love deeply have been this kid and they’ve spoken about what it feels like to be this girl, how they were teased, how they were shamed by teachers and parents and nosy aunties and perfect strangers.  Approaching the issue of obesity through the lens of shame, whether it’s shaming the parents or the child, is wrong. It is misguided at best and cruel at worst. These ads should be pulled but that is not enough in my estimation. We all need to be educated on how to love one another a whole lot better. We all need to know how to listen to this little girl, learn how to be safe people in the lives of someone who struggles with weight issues. We all, whether that is our struggle or not, need to take that big judgement making machine we carry around in our back pockets and smash it on the floor somewhere.

The only way that will begin to happen is if people speak it. A good way to begin is to speak out against these ads and ads like them.  Stop the propagation of shame, end the culture of shame.

Want to take part and be a voice of care?? The internet makes it easy so you have no excuse. None

If you would like to voice your opinion you can do it directly AT The Strong 4Life Campaign. They just so happen to be on twitter and Facebook.

Twitter: @Strong_4_Life

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/S4LGA

The best way to get people to treat you the way you want to be treated is to TELL THEM HOW YOU WANT TO BE TREATED…so let’s tell Georgia how we want to be treated where childhood obesity is concerned.

Course Correction….

For some people it’s that 5-10 pounds. It keeps coming and going, like a wandering relative who shows up at the worst possible time and sticks around way too long. For others, the “weight struggle” is 20 pounds, 40 pounds, more. Whatever the size of your struggle or your jeans a lot can be said for looking at your current course.

I’m talking about that sit down with yourself moment where you take a look at where you’ve been and plot out where you think you might be going.

Remember Algebra? This is why you were forced to learn it, unless you’re a mathematician in real life, maybe it had another benefit too, but for the rest of us, this is why. In Algebra based upon the data you were working with you were then given coordinates. On that awesome graphing paper you were asked to find the x and the y axis’ remember that? You’d then plot out the data on the graph, making dots with that Number 2 pencil. You might then be asked to draw a line to project where you expect the line to go, if all things remained constant.

That’s the course.

For your “data” I’d like you to look at these factors…In the last 5 years write down HISTORICALLY- how you eat, why you eat, when you eat. How you move, when you move, why you move. How do you care for yourself? How do you punish yourself?

Has anything changed significantly for you in that time? Loss of work, loved one, dream? Gain of work, loved one, dream?  What life factors have had an influence on you health-wise?

What else comes into play in your normal person, health data? Illness? Love language? Family of Origin? Happiness? Whatever seems important to note, make note of that. It’s especially interesting to see if you can remember a basic EMOTION around these events, this data.

What is YOUR course?  Where have you been? What are your coordinates? Is your Number 2 pencil sharp? Remember, do not look on your neighbor’s paper…nobody’s experience is EXACTLY like yours. Your graph will reflect you and you alone.

Once you know where you’ve been, what your current “course” looks like you can start to figure out what needs shifting and sifting in you. If your course is generally good and healthy and you’ve gained a little weight you can look at that data and have an idea of why or how it happened, you can decide if that’s okay with you or if it isn’t, what you will do to correct the course. Once we take the numbers and the data out of our heads and start to see it in another form we can wrap our arms around it, we can identify with it without making it our identity. We can take back our lives, take the wheel again if we’ve been on autopilot for a while. We can take ownership of this vessel. We are the Love Boat, not the Battleship. We are the captains of our souls!

In the news…sugar and spice

Oh dear…Paula Deen, diagnosed with Diabetes three years ago and just now getting us caught up with her sweet self.

I’m not a fan of Paula Deen but then again I’m also not a detractor. I don’t hate Paula Deen, although I will admit that seeing her wide, semi-manical smile seated next to a beautiful albeit sinful dessert every single time I’m in the grocery store line makes me cringe. It just annoys me. I’m a little cranky that way.

I love sweets. I love southern cooking. I love to eat. The truth is that I feel like crap when I eat too much of that sort of food and so I try to reserve the really GOOD stuff (read: Wuthering Heights foods) to the occasional treat. I do this because when we make those foods our “staple” foods then not only is it hard on our bodies but it’s hard on our psyches too. What’s “special” if I eat like that every day, right?

But this isn’t about southern food or tasty desserts.  It’s about Paula Deen. Like most things I can see the different sides of this. I have friends who have gotten this sort of diagnosis. It turns your life upside down. It forces you to think differently, act differently, understand your motivations differently. It causes you to question your past and worry about your future perhaps a little more than you might have before. It’s a serious diagnosis that has long reaching implications.

Some fast stats on diabetes (thanks to NDIC):

• Among U.S. residents ages 65 years and older, 10.9 million, or 26.9 percent, had diabetes in 2010.
• About 215,000 people younger than 20 years had diabetes—type 1 or type 2—in the United States in 2010.
• About 1.9 million people ages 20 years or older were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2010 in the United States.
• In 2005–2008, based on fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1C (A1C) levels, 35 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 years or older had pre-diabetes—50 percent of adults ages 65 years or older. Applying this percentage to the entire U.S. population in 2010 yields an estimated 79 million American adults ages 20 years or older with pre-diabetes.
• Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower-limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States.
• Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke.
• Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.

Now, if a person makes her living cooking sweet treats and getting us to buy her cookbooks, cookware, magazines, what have you, then a diagnosis of this kind would take on a new dimension. I cannot imagine the panic that comes with getting this news. It threatens your life AND your livelihood. I can understand on some level why Paula Deen needed some time to process all of this. If was any of us normal folk we could do that easily, privately, but as a celebrity who makes her living posing with cupcakes? Not so much.

Yet, as I read about the fallout of this announcement I see an awful lot of people complaining about the deceit, about the lack of integrity, the irony of her 6 word memoir composed after her diagnosis and appearing in Oprah’s book-

“Might as well eat the cookie.”

I don’t know if it was deceitful for Paula to keep working and promoting unhealthy eating after her diagnosis. It’s not as if she was promoting health and wellness before that. In reality, the harm she’s really done in all this is to her own body. In some ways, for this last three years Paula has been more in integrity with her self. She’s continued to be the person she always has been. The bigger issue now is how she will approach the future and the person she will HAVE to become in order to stay alive and well. I hope that she keeps her focus. I hope she finds ways to enjoy food JUST as much as she has in the past while still remembering that all of this media is just dust in the wind when all is said and done. What really matters is the quality of the life she lives with the family she loves. Godspeed, Paula Deen, I wish you well.

Oh, the pain…

Alright, I know I try to keep it light around here and to date I’ve been all about loving on you and helping you to love on yourself as you navigate the conflicting culture markers of “being healthy” and “being normal.”  Today, though, I want to talk about pain.

You got it. I got it. We all got it.

When you read that what exactly came to mind for you? When you think about your body pain do you nod your head and say, “yes…it’s here in my knee” or “yikes, my back gets wonky all the time” or even “well, my stomach hurts a lot.”

It should come as no shock that we carry emotions and stressors in our bodies. We’re not machines. We’re bounteous, lovely gardens. We’re walking ecosystems all up in here. What happens in your heart happens in your head and in your muscles and in your knees. At least one part of your body is the scapegoat, the place it will carry chronic pain.

When I talk about chronic pain I’m not referring to that time you fell down and broke your leg but I may be referring to the fact that when things are really stressy for you, that leg hurts still, long after the injury has healed. Not all chronic pain is “stress induced” but today let’s just ask ourselves, “what if my chronic pain IS stress induced.” There’s no harm in asking ourselves is there?

If it is a result of stress, know that your body picked this spot to broadcast your stress for a reason. It’s not because it thinks this is the weakest link but because at first, at least, your body is protecting you. It chooses a part of your body that it knows you will hear, whether you choose to LISTEN to it is another thing altogether.

Here’s the thing-

We love our pain. We don’t like to think that we have attachments to it or that we have woven it into our identity so well that we often don’t know that it’s not really a part of our design. We have all kinds of excuses as to why we have it and in our heads, my friends, we also have excuses as to why we NEED it. Think about your pain. Where is it? What’s your reasoning on why it occurs? Why THERE? Why NOW? What does it DO for you? What would it look like if this was not part of your story? What would you put in its place?

Let me be really clear, I am NOT saying that your pain isn’t real. It is real. It does hurt you. What I’m hoping today is that you can gain an awareness of your chronic pain, that you can start having a little conversation with it throughout the day. Take note of when you feel that twinge in your back. What’s going on? How you feeling in your sweet lovely heart? What’s going on at work? What’s going on at home?

When the chronic pain surfaces just take a minute to see if you can breathe it out a little. See if you can have that little conversation with your self, offer your self some care, some understanding. See if you can listen a little better today to that body and give it what it really needs.

What’s your Wuthering Heights food?

Everyone has a Wuthering Heights food. If they don’t they ought to.

If you haven’t read the book then get thee right now to a library and read it. Go now. I’ll wait.

Right then, where was I? Yes, your Wuthering Heights food.  This is your Heathcliff, not your Healthcliff. It’s the one food you simply cannot resist. You know it’s bad for you. You know it can never love you the way you need to be loved, the way that keeps you truly happy and contented. You know it will probably kill you over time but you just cannot stay away.  No matter how you try to love Kale as much as you love as deep-fried Twinkies you know it will never hit your sweet spot, don’t you?

Yeah, well…I say, there’s a place in our lives for making crappy food choices. Sometimes a little leeway in this area is actually healthy, at least on an emotional level.  The more we deny ourselves something downright delicious once in a while in the name of “fitness” the more we build up resentment and anger….and then WE become Heathcliff- dark, bitter and brooding. See how that works?

So, my advice, Drama Free folks…eat the deep-fried Twinkie once in a while when it crosses your path but don’t seek out the deep-fried Twinkie. In the long run, that Kale is always going to love you better.

Love the one you’re with…

I like exercising at home. It’s convenient and I’m a little lazy, I admit. I’ve been a devotee of home exercise DVDs since before there were DVDs. At one time I think I owned pretty much everything Tamilee Webb ever made. She’s so perky. I like her.

So my question to you is this, if you like home exercise DVDs…do you look like the person on the outer cover? I mean, do you have the muscles? The clothing? The smile on her face?

Yeah, me neither.

Do you know why?

It’s because more than likely the person on the cover of that DVD you love does this for a living. This is his or her’s job. But the rest of us? This is not our job. Most of us sit at a desk or chase small children or instruct other people’s children or stand at a big espresso machine asking “foam or no foam?” all day. For most of us, our jobs do not depend on having muscles on our muscles.

That being said, our jobs do depend on us being able to show up to do them every day and so for that reason I’m going to tell you that it’s important you keep at that exercise program or DVD you love. You wanna kickbox with Billy Blanks?

Do.It.

You love Buns of Steel?

Me.Too

Now, because I want you to keep at it I’m giving you a piece of really important advice- do the workout because you like the workout not because you want the body on the cover of the DVD.

Friends, that’s not your body on the cover of the DVD and I can promise you that the person on that DVD did not GET that body simply by doing that workout a couple of times a week. That person has to work as hard as any of us at it. The big deal difference is that this person’s living depends on them being in top physical form.

This being said, maybe you DO already have a body like the one on the cover of the DVD and if you do then I salute you! Well done!! You rock!  I know that you work hard or that perhaps you have amazing genes. Even so, love the body you got not the one you wish you had or the one that your spin instructor has or the one that the buff barista next to you has…love the body you came with, it’s the only one you get.

 

Your “thing”

I have a friend who gets up early every morning and she runs. She’s a runner. I like this about her. She’s focused and disciplined and authentic too. She’s probably one of my very best friends.

Myself, I am not a runner. I often tell people that I don’t run unless I’m being chased and even then, I’d probably try to talk some sense into whomever is wanting to chase me first. (Probably not wise, I admit.)

Nevertheless I keep TRYING to be a runner. I keep buying the stuff I’d need; the shoes, the iPod holder, the clothing. Sadly, I can’t buy the motivation or the desire to actually get out there and run. I have gone out a few times. I considered asking people to run with me, add a layer of accountability but each time I do that I realize I need to have someone at my own slug level or I just feel crappy asking them to slow down or even power walk…um, okay, saunter.

Here’s the thing I realize about exercise-

If you don’t LIKE to do it…even on some very deep level…. the likelihood that you’ll make it a habit is low. It’s not impossible, it does happen. I know a great many people who began an exercise program, hated it and then grew to love it. This does happen. I’d suggest, though, that it was more likely that they let their disdain get out of the way long enough to discover something new about THEMSELVES. It’s empowering to stick with something and make that discovery.

That being said. Not all of us are meant to be runners. Not all of us are kick boxers. Not all of us are Zumba lovers.

It’s okay. It really is okay.

This doesn’t mean that you will not ever have some sort of movement or exercise program you’ll love (or learn to love.) It only means that perhaps you haven’t found your “thing.” The tragedy isn’t in the discovery that a program isn’t your thing….the real tragedy is that we stop TRYING to find our thing.

Consider this…you have favorite foods, favorite movies, favorite songs…does it have to be your favorite forever? No, of course not. But while you loved it you loved it well. Now, if you never found a food, a movie or a song that you loved, would that be alright with you? So why not apply the same thinking to movement?

Let your resolution this year NOT be to

-lose weight

-get in shape

-have thinner thighs

Let your resolution this year if you don’t have a way of moving you like (or love) to be to try something new. Just try something. See if you can find your “thing” over the course of time.