Mark It Down

For the first time in I don't even know how long, I am running.

And no one is even chasing me.

I hate running.

I hate exercising.

I even hate the stairs in my house, that I find myself running up and down multiple times a day.

But I'm not getting any younger. In fact, this very day, I'm a year older. (Feel free to send cash. I also accept checks.)

So back to the exercise... I just don't like it. I especially don't like to do it alone. A gym membership is not in the budget, and I wouldn't go even if it was. Unless it was right next door, and then I still probably wouldn't go.

A few weeks ago, some dear friends and I went up north for a weekend away from life... Everyone except for one of us who was pregnant and one of us who is lazy (me), exercised every day that we were there. One of the days, I power walked with them and thought I might die. I know I need to exercise, but like many other things including dieting, if you don't really want to do it, you just won't. No amount of anyone telling you that you should can make you do it. Especially since I KNOW that I should, I just don't want to.

Here's the funny part. I get the urge to exercise about twice a year. I refer to it as the semi-annual urge to exercise... I'm usually able to resist it until it passes. I've honed that skill... ;) But this year, when the spring urge struck, as hard as I tried to ignore it, I continued thinking about it and even began wishing there was some way I could incorporate it into my already hectic life. If anyone is thinking, "how hectic can the life of a stay at home mom be - thanks for asking. I dare you to try it and then we can chat. ;) I didn't think too much about it though, until I went up north with the girls. (If you're not from Michigan and don't know what or where up north is, read this....)

We have a horse track on our property, so I decided after Mommy's Weekend Away, that I would start walking. I figured twenty minutes of exercise a couple times a week would be better than the zero minutes of exercise that I was currently doing consistently.

The first day I walked for a bit. Then I thought, well, if I'm trying to exercise, I suppose I should try to get my heart rate up there. So I ran. And nearly died. But the next day, I did it again. Believe this one or not, I even started looking forward to rolling out of bed early. One day I even posted on facebook that I needed a running buddy at 5:30 am, and actually got a bite! I'm loving that more than I ever thought possible. The days The Hubster goes to the office, I have a small window of opportunity and well - it opens at 5:30... My sweet friend Lindsay and I are running twice a week at the obscene hour! You can't imagine what you can accomplish with a little motivation, a little free time (even if it is at the booty crack of dawn) and a healthy dose of endorphins. Dust bunnies beware!

So, there you have it - I'm running. Consistently. And since it's only been a couple of weeks and history dictates that this comet will be fizzling out very very soon, I thought I would share with the whole entire universe, (at least those on the internet that find their way to my little slice of the interweb) so I'd have some accountability. Hold me to it, dear friends. My little heart depends on it!