I missed all of last week’s “homework” for Blogging 101. I’ve been sick and dealing with life. Today’s Blogging 101 homework is to work with a writing prompt. Mine happens to be Learning Style.

When I was a teenager, I was a very good student in social studies. So much that I spent most of my junior year sleeping through my American history class and still got an “A.”

At the time, I chalked it up to being tired from getting up early, participating in sports and doing homework late in the evening.

As I took college classes as an English major, I also slept through certain classes. They were usually around lunch time, and usually lecture classes. Unfortunately, English majors take a lot of lecture classes, so I slept more than I should have. My grade point average wasn’t very good.

I didn’t know until I went into culinary school that sleeping during class probably wasn’t caused by sleep deprivation. It was because I don’t learn in a lecture-based setting.

I learn by doing, which makes changing my food and exercise habits particularly frustrating.

There are probably some great books about nutrition and proper foods out there, they may be even in my own home. But until they offer recipes with ingredients I can afford or something I don’t fall asleep too while reading, I’m screwed.

So I learn through doing: Making recipes and plugging them into Myfitnesspal to check the calorie count; and doing a workout and seeing what happens afterward.

And right now, I’m stuck. My first year of running, I was able to go sub 30-minute 5k. The year after, I ran a 28 minute and 3 second 5k. I have been slow since then. Certain workouts aren’t as effective anymore. Tricks I used convinced myself to perform better aren’t working.

A local fitness group has the motto, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” I think this is where I’m at in my fitness journey. I haven’t done anything new. I’m stuck and it shows in my performance.

It’s time to step out of my comfort zone. I’ve been doing it socially, but it’s time to finish what I started in June.

I moved after eight-plus years in an area of Appalachia with the hopes of improving the lives of my family members. We started the journey and we paused to enjoy the scenery. Now, it’s time to forge ahead.

In about a month, a six-mile trail run is being held by the local group, whose motto I quoted above. I can run the length, but this is a trail run. I have a lot of work to do.

Learning through doing — trial and error.  This time, I’ll make sure I keep a record of everything so I can share my successes and failures with you.

How do you get over a fitness hump? Share in the comments.