Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Exercise

My shoulder blades.  My biceps.  My long forgotten abdominal muscles.   They are all wondering what 2013 has in store for them and, I think, are beginning to be less than pleased with me. I think in the long run, however, I will be pleased with them.

Over the holiday break a friend from high school posted her 2012 synopsis of working out: 1021.25 miles ran and 323 completed workouts. 
WHAT? I damn near spit my wine across the room when I read this.  After careful consideration, however, I decided I valued my wine far too much to waste it on spitting. 
But my brain started working - over a thousand miles and more than 300 workouts.  Wow.  What had I done?  Steadily become more sedentary and thicker around the middle.
I have an arsenal of excuses - I have bad knees.  There are no sidewalks in my neighborhood.  I am too tired.  I am so busy with the girls. 
Turns out this friend of mine has three boys- the oldest two being twins - and works full time.  I mean, for heavens sake, if she can find time to do all that I really don't have an excuse. 

So I dusted off my sneakers, found my weights and popped in the 30 Day Shred DVD in our basement.  I only have 321 more workouts to go to be as impressive as her.  My rational side knows that I feel better, do better, am better when I exercise.  My lazy side wants to sit in my chair and pretend I am too busy.  My realistic side (who knew I had so many sides?) tells me that I will not log 323 workouts; nor will I log 1021.25 miles of running. So my hopeful side is just going to throw this out there:  260 days of working out. That means an average of five days a week - to count as a work out it has to be intentional exercise, my heart rate has to be elevated, I have to break a sweat. 

I had set my alarm this morning for 6:15 so that I could log a third workout today before the minions woke up.  I got out of bed, turned off my alarm and snuggled right back under the covers - not the most impressive start to this new improved me.  That being said, Addie asked if we could exercise together today...
So here it goes - I have 258 more logged workouts to go.  Who's going to keep me honest?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Go get it! Two things - 260 is a big number! I would put it at 160 for this year and make it grow over the next few years if you want.

Next - Make yourself accountable. If you don't reach 160 or whatever by the end of the year, you have to eat a can of dog food, video yourself doing it and post it to the blog.

Just suggestions.

Mich said...

Impressive Jess!

Put up a workout counter on the side of your blog and update it every week or so - I know two people in my household who will check in and call you out....

Also, I was thinking this morning that I want to make myself workout once a week....you just put my goal to shame. Maybe I will do 2 now :)

Sue said...

Whoever this "friend" is who posted all her 2012 fabulous-ness kinda sucks! Don't we feel guilty enough about everything already? But I am proud of you and your fitness goals. (P.S. Tool's suggested video of accountability made me laugh out loud.)

Colleen said...

Hey! I know that person ;) You can DO it Jess - I know you can. I am keeping you accountable. You are going to regret asking :) And one piece of advice - although mornings SUCK that is when I do all mine. 1. because it is awesome having it done with and 2. makes you feel great all day - thus making you make better eating decisions cause you just busted your butt! and 3. as the day goes on, TOO many excuses come up. Just my 2 cents! and most importantly 4. you can still drink wine cause you burned the calories! :)