How My Bad News Is Actually Awesome!

I'm not pregnant. Again.

Usually, I would refer you to this other post and explain why I'm kinda sad about it. But this month, when my period came 6 days early, I saw it for what it was: A slap in the face/miracle of miracles. I realized that I had been given a gift and I needed to run with it!

Hashing out my feelings about my health-hypocrisy was the running start, and the not-pregnant thing was the gunshot. I can start exercising with increased energy and determination now! It won't harm a fetus if a fetus isn't there, right? And so instead of bemoaning my health-hypocrisy, I made a quick plan. Today I started the plan.

Behold! The Plan!

On my whiteboard (technically it's blue, but you wouldn't have understood if I had said "blue" board, right? I mean, what is a blueboard, anyway?), I wrote down M, T, W, TH, F. Below each day is my "goal" or "desire" or "something I can actually do if I make myself do it."

M/W/F:

Go walking with Virginia and Nancy at 6AM. [They sometimes run. Usually it's a walk, then run, then walk, then run. They've been going for 2 years now, and I used to go with them! It used to be just Nancy and me, and then Virginia joined us, and then I got pregnant and then I stopped and never really re-started, but they've been doing it this whole time --why don't I just go with them!?]

Go for a walk with the boys in the stroller at 9AM. Make Angie go with me.

T/TH:

Do some kind of strength training before scriptures at 7AM. Yoga, pilates, abs, whatever.

Go for a walk with the boys in the stroller sometime that day.

Now, I know I should have started small --with only 20 minutes a few days a week. But I know that if I start too small, it'll be easy for me to skip it. Is that strange? Maybe. I decided I needed to give myself some chunks of time to get it in and make a habit of it. The 6AM time sounds impossible to a lot of people, but I realized that it really is (and has been) perfect for me. My kids are all asleep, and... well, that's it! My kids are sleeping. Yep. That's it. It's amazing what one can accomplish when the children are asleep. Expecting that you have any energy left, of course, which is why I would need to do this in the morning and not at night. You know. Because of all the energy I do NOT have when they go to bed at night. Anyway.

How did I do today? Well, dear reader, thank you for asking! I did smashing! I walked 3.85 miles with my buddies before scriptures at 7AM, and then Angie and I walked 2.81 miles together while I pushed the boys in the stroller. I'm kind of sore (just from walking!), but it feels so great! I've also showered, cleaned the kitchen, had my VT over, and didn't completely pig out. Such a good, good day!

After I walked the first time this morning, my exercise hero left this on my Facebook wall:

Ok, I've decided. I'm only working out next week as many days as you work out this week. So either you get on it or I'm going to lose all this fabulous muscle tone. You don't want to be responsible for me getting all fat and (my hubby) leaving me and my dying of heart disease do you?

Not only did that warm my heart (because she knows I would never intentionally harm her in any way, and it felt good she cared about my exercise success), but it felt so good to tell her that I already exercised today! Such awesomeness, dear reader. Awesome. Ness.

I'm not going to talk about how I'm gonna rock at this, though. I'm only going to focus one day at a time. Because I know that by Wednesday, I will be tired. My body is going to hate me as I make this change at getting up earlier and pushing harder. I don't want to quit, and so instead of making goals like, "I'm gonna lose 25 pounds by July!" or "I wanna run a 5K!" or "Hello, swimsuit season!" I only have one goal in mind:

Today, I will exercise.

And I have my exercise hero to thank for that one!