In Shape
Posted
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:04 PM
What motivates me to stay in shape? I guess the fact that I've always been athletic and like to go running/swimming. How do I find time to do it? Even though my work schedule varies, it's usually easy enough to find an hour here or there to run to the YMCA.
Shortly after Jax was born, I picked up the Carmen Electra striptease videos because they were low-impact enough and had great sections on ab workouts. I began doing those every day and then when my in-laws gave us their old treadmill, I started running too. It was easy to find time to run on the treadmill and do the videos because I was home exclusively for 6 months and then until he turned 1 I worked in the evenings on the weekends. When I started working in the bar and making friends and going out, I stopped working as much and got a little chubby in the belly again. Not much. probably nobody but me even noticed, but it was enough.
In the fall my girlfriend and I were talking about how much we miss swimming because we were big swimmers in high school. We decided to join up at the YMCA and go swimming every day. This happened shortly after I was promoted and it was easy to plan on going right after work. But then my schedule began to change and made it impossible for me to keep a consistent swimming schedule. It worked for 3 months but then we just stopped going. I didn't want to continue to pay for a membership if I wasn't going to be swimming. So instead I found it convenient to drop Jax off at daycare, go running, get ready, have lunch and go to work if it was going to be a late day. If it was a regular day, sometimes I'd be crazy and go work out at 5 AM.
It's annoying getting into the habit of working out. There are still some days where I tell myself that I don't really want to go, but find myself driving in that direction anyway.
While I've still yet to do it, there are a handful of songs that always get me pumped up to run or dance or whatever it may be. My Ipod is still a mosh pit of songs, so sometimes it takes me awhile to find the song that I want to start with. But these are songs that are definitely on my playlist:
"Paint it Black" -The Rolling Stones
"SexyBack" Justin Timberlake
"Disco Club" Black Eyed Peas
"Let's Get Retarded" Black Eyed Peas
"Put Your Hands on Me" Joss Stone
"Closer" Nine Inch Nails
Once I put together an actual workout playlist, I'll post it. Time to get back to the grind!!! :D