The Party Princesses

Since moving to New York City three years ago, I have found exercising and eating right to be a nearly impossible task. Now 25-years-old, I find my dinners usually consisting of the oh-so-reliable cheap piece of pizza. As for working out, it has been low on my list of priorities, whereas socializing, aka happy hour, takes precedence. Believe it or not, exercising used to be the story of my life. I was a competitive athlete who played soccer throughout high school and during two years of college. I worked out no less than six days a week and it showed. My athleticism kept my body in good shape until five years ago, when I decided to let my body take a little vacation from the physical stress it endured while playing sports.

That "vacation" turned into full-on retirement. The will to work out is gone, but I've also developed bad habits like smoking and the inability to fall asleep at a decent hour. Sitting in a chair eight hours a day as a legal assistant certainly doesn't motivate me to be active, nor does the fact that running on New York City streets is more of a hassle than exercise itself. Or perhaps it's that I'm really, really good at making convincing excuses. Well, that's all about to change. I'm taking the challenge with my younger sister Natalie who shares a cramped bedroom with me in a three-bedroom apartment. While we have all the fun in the world together, neither of us makes a good "gym partner." We enjoy the (all too) occasional beer and the late night slice of pizza that accompanies it. We are realizing that we aren't okay with our current bodies and that we do want to get back into peak physical shape. Not exercising is especially frustrating for Natalie because, while I threw in the towel years ago, she was a college athlete only six months ago. Since she graduated college she has followed in my footsteps of giving her body a rest, only to find out that "resting" can lead to letting go of a healthy way of life. We are in this challenge together to get healthy and do away with our bad habits once and for all.
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