On Fitness and Cooking

In a bid to undo some of the damage (i.e. fat) wreaked on my body while travelling a lot for work last year and a somewhat indulgent holiday period, I'm currently trying to complete Couch to 5k. C25K is a nine week running program designed to take you from being unfit (the couch) to being able to run five kilometres in 30 minutes. I completed Couch to 5k after my operation at the start of 2010, but let myself fall out of the habit as the year progressed - being in Canberra in winter was most of my excuse. At the moment I'm giving it another go and am up to the seventh week, which is the first week which does not break the runs up with any walking, and last night I struggled. While grinding up a hill that felt a lot steeper than it probably was I pondered the question:
How much of my struggle was related to lack of fitness/talent, and how much to my illness?

It's a question that would be very hard to provide a quantified answer, because you're getting into the realm of "what if?" I've never been particularly fast, coordinated, or athletic. But how much do these factors influence what my peak performance could be, versus any negative factors introduced by my illness?
I know that there are definite impacts - for example, my right leg doesn't always "fire" correctly, resulting in my toe scraping the ground quite often as I walk and making it a lot more likely that I trip (I was running every other day on my recent holiday in Vietnam until I tripped and smashed my back into a post. It's still sore nearly four weeks later). Whilst I stop myself from destroying my shoes by taping up the toe with duct tape every few runs, my efficiency must be terrible. I shudder to think how my arm/shoulder movements compare with those of an athlete.
So am I just being a sook and making excuses, when in fact I should be knuckling down and pushing through it? Or should I be realistic about what I'm capable of and cut myself some slack? I'd love to be able to build up to running 5ks in twenty minutes, or completing a half marathon but wonder if the effort for me would be too great. Or am I just making excuses for myself? I can only try and find out.

Away from the world of fitness, I also need to be more self aware of my shortcomings in every day life. I really enjoy cooking, but given the lack of strength and sensation in my hands, I'm somewhat ungainly,especially when handling delicate, awkward or heavy items. As a result, my left hand at the moment is more blister than not. This used to happen a lot wit my right hand, and was one of the catalysts for my second operation. This is pretty scaring considering I didn't even notice one of my burns until a minute or so until after it happened. I'm going to have to keep reminding myself that I'm not a celebrity chef with asbestos fingers, and that asking for help is not a crime.