Stretching Out My Wings

I am almost hesitant to write this post. But if this blog has taught me anything it's that putting things in writing can sometimes make them more real. This is not "I'm back!" but more like "I'm on my way"...I hope. I'll start with some recent events that got this ball rolling.

I am part of a mother's club and we had our annual Mother's Social in May. The party includes a raffle with a ton of awesome prizes. One of them was a fitness package that included a full year membership to a gym that is probably five minutes from my office and ten minutes from home. I really wanted to win that prize. I put some raffle tickets in for a lot of other items but put most of my tickets in that basket. When the raffle was just about to close I ran and bought 15 more tickets and put them all in that basket. I'd had a few glasses of wine and was feeling pretty spiffy and I was going around telling everyone that if I won that prize it was "because God wants me to work out!". I also pointed out one of the hottest mom's there and claimed I'd be wearing her dress to the party next year. Ha! Well, you guessed it, I won the fitness package. I won!

Over the following weeks I started to get my head around the fact that one of my remaining excuses, finances, was no longer an excuse. I have a gym membership for a full year. I didn't want it to go to waste so I spent a few weeks readying my mind, and my gear, for the gym. I dug out my gym bag, found my ipod, and tried to pick out the least unattractive workout clothes.

Things I will try to keep in mind in the coming weeks...

1. Stay in the moment. You are starting back to working out, don't compare yourself to where you were.

2. Slow and steady is the way to go. It will be a challenge at first but I know from experience it will eventually get easier and the fun will come.

3. I am doing this for myself. I feel better when I am in good shape. I enjoy being fit and active.

4. No giving up. I want to get all I can out of this year membership and giving up would not accomplish that.

5. Hydrate.

I'm sure there's a lot more to add to this but for now it's a fair start.

Maybe you're wondering about Weight Watchers. I am too. I understand they read my blog and finally came around to my way of thinking on a few things. I hear the new plan includes unlimited fruit. That's a good one. Who got fat on too many apples? Or bananas for that matter. And the Points have been re-worked? I haven't been to a meeting since the change so I don't know the details but what I've heard, I like. Still, I'm going to start slow for now and just do this gym thing for a bit and see where that goes. Maybe I'll add WW back into the mix down the road. When I started in '07 it was the other way around so this seems fitting somehow.

I'll mention one last thing before this entry gets to be too much. We had some friends over last weekend (Hi Wendy and Victor!!). Wendy is in training for her first event ever - a marathon! Who starts with a marathon?! That's Wendy. She goes for it and it's awe inspiring. Victor is about to do his first triathlon. He's doing the one I did for my first time (and 2nd, and 3rd...), the Tri for Fun in Pleasanton. All the shop talk about training runs, bilateral breathing and planning for transitions got me excited. I want to do events again. I love this stuff. Victor told me that reading my blog way back when was a "if she can do it so can I" inspiration and was one of the things got him thinking about tri's. All I can say is I was really glad to have them over and share in their enthusiasm. I am hoping we can all do an event together next year.

Alright, well I'm wrapping this up. I plan to start blogging again as this was always a help to me. With two little ones I'm not sure what the frequency will be like but I hope to not be back here in several months saying, 'sorry it's been so long!'.

Thank you for all the nice comments about my little chickens. Of course I am loving them more than anything. Any time my mind gets too negative on the body image I remind myself that I made two humans in the past couple of years and to slow down on the trash-talking. I'm closing with a family picture from a recent nature walk.



p.s. I am going to weigh myself in the morning and that will be my current weight. Can't go with the dreaded evening weight :) Some things never change. When you see my weight you'll appreciate even more why I want the morning weight!