Exercises come in many different kinds

For the past several months I have become semi-absorbed by the need for formal exercise.  It's strange in a way because I never really cared about exercise before.  It was something I knew I needed, but it seemed more like a chore than an enjoyable past time.  I knew that exercise would give me more energy, which I sorely needed, but the idea held no appeal for me.   After Isaac was born things changed.

I'm thirty-two years old, and eleven months ago I had my second child.  Isaac was accidentally born naturally, which was a revelatory experience, but even though recovery from the process of delivery was easy, recovery from the process of carrying Isaac was not.  I don't mean to imply that carrying Isaac did any permanent damage to me medically, but aesthetically, and as I tried to transition back into my old clothes, some damage had been done. Suddenly I wanted to strengthen my abdominal muscles.  Suddenly I was not longer satisfied to feel worn out by the time Michael came home from work in the afternoon.  Suddenly I was not satisfied to become tired so quickly while chasing Parker around in the front yard.

Not long after Isaac was born I started trying to walk 30 minutes every day.  Often this walking would occur early in the morning as I had many waking hours accompanied by trouble sleeping.  Often this walking would occur right after Michael came home from work, while he and Parker started eating dinner without me.  It was much too inconvenient and difficult to schedule, so it didn't last long.

Months later I saw on Facebook that my friend Amy's usual walking partner was out of town and that she was looking for someone else to join her.  I saw this as an opportunity to get a few walks in and to spend some time with an adult friend, so with Michael's help I took advantage of the chance.  We started to walk twice a week around the quad, weather permitting, but there were often weeks at a time when the weather didn't permit.

My mom started receiving a subscription to Health Magazine which I immediately co-opted.  Though I suspect this magazine does not contain the highest quality healthy lifestyle information, I enjoy reading it, and through it I found a Pilates video I thought might work for me, which, by the way, it does.  Then I noticed while watching the first season of Desperate Housewives on Hulu (yes, it's mostly trash, but it's very diverting trash) that Gabby and Edie were often to be seen jogging, which started me thinking that maybe I could somehow build my walking up to a respectable run.

So now I'm on this track.  My routines are still very much a muddle, and I am currently undergoing a setback as I've somehow injured my back, but I'm definitely on a track.  It's different, it's exciting, but it also opens up for me some other possibilities.

I now can rake the front yard longer and more efficiently than I could before.  Sometimes now on a Saturday when I think it might be nice to take a walk, I actually do it.  Then I realized just today that I really can set a timer for ten minutes every day and get in some writing, publishable or not.  It's amazing what a little exercise can do.