My First Weekly Goal...Exercise 5 Times!

Sounds pretty ambitious, huh? My very first goal to myself was to add in 30 minutes of exercise 5 of the 7 days of the week. This exercise would be on top of the nightly running my husband I attempt to do 2-3 nights of the week.

Since the entire purpose of this weekly-goal-adventure is to assign a small goal each week, in hopes of actually accomplishing it, you may be wondering why I picked something that seems so destined to fail. That's sort of like a New Year's Resolution that you'll quit smoking, or join a gym, or start eating healthy. Huge changes that rarely stick because--by nature--we humans are creatures of habit. And if your habit is eating Mars Bars for breakfast and fried chicken for dinner, you're not going to suddenly just switch to salads and granola without going into some sort of shock. Hence my idea that little baby steps will seem less daunting, and bit by bit I will become thinner, greener, and richer.

Back to the first goal. Let me start by giving you a brief but necessary history of the role of exercise in my life.

The First 28 Years--Pretty much non-existent. I have always been somewhat active. I grew up riding horses, I've always enjoyed hiking and walking, and I've taken a stab at fitness classes. Kickboxing lasted longer than spinning only because my friend Brooke was the instructor. If I didn't show up for class she was going to kick my ass. At various points between years 25 and 28 I belonged to different gyms. But my attempts at regular exercise were sporadic at best, and nothing ever really stuck.

Year 28-29--Had a baby. Got fat. Really fat.

Year 29-30--After realizing that 19 days of breastfeeding was not going to be enough to burn off 50 excess pounds, I started working out. Winter was approaching, and so the DVR became my new best friend. I DVR'd multiple workout shows and began, um, working out. I'm reluctant to call it that because my early efforts were pathetic. Pregnancy had wreaked havoc on what little strength and endurance I had had to begin with. My flab was my enemy. I can recall trying to do a Pilates move called a plank; you basically put yourself in the push-up position, but instead of your hands holding your weight, your forearms do. I couldn't do it. I was pathetic.

But little by little I did start losing weight. It took a lot of time--I believe I worked out for 7 weeks before I saw any real difference. Then, in March of this past year, my husband G2 up and decided to start running. Since his level of activity was even less than mine (pre-baby) I decided to join him. Note--I have never, and I do mean never run. I hated it at first. I still hate it sometimes. But its made a huge difference in a lot of aspects of my life.

Summer rolled in with weeks on end of 90 degree heat, and G2 was pretty tied up with his out-of-control vegetable garden. Our running became more sporadic. I noticed the effects...and I didn't like the way I was feeling. Going 4 days without exercise (okay 7 days) wasn't behooving me at all. I felt flabby. I felt lazy. I felt like if I kept up with the non-exercising I would be right back where I started. That a habit of daily exercise that had taken nearly a year to build could just disapear in a few weeks. And even though my highest weight was due to pregnancy, it didn't seem impossible that I could just float back to that scary number just by doing...nothing.

So, week one--add 30 minutes of exercise to 5 of the 7 days. I decided this would be in addition to running. As in, if we ended up running at night, sweet, added bonus. If not, I knew I had at least done 30 minutes of light exercise. I either walked in the morning (pushing my 21# son in his jogging stroller) or I did a DVR'd episode of Denise Austin.

How did it go, you ask? It went great! Deciding ahead of time to do this made it easier to stick to it. I also informed my friends on my mommy board of my plan, and they all jumped on the bandwagon (with their own goals) but it helped keep me on track. The comedic aspect of doing episodes of Denise Austin from the early 90's was enough to keep me going back for more. If you're interested, they air on Lifetime. Now obviously Denise knows her stuff, otherwise she wouldn't look the way she does and she wouldn't have a work-out empire. But, God love her, she has to be one of the cheesiest, and most uncoordinated work-out instructors I know. Even my one-year old laughs at her.

Final summation of week one--success! We shall see what week two brings...