Losing Weight

So, I decided to rename this series and just title it Losing Weight since sometimes I want to tag people but it's awkward to tag someone who is not or maybe should not be pregnant when "pregnancy" is in your title.

Yeah.

Today I want to talk about exercise. :)

I am a classic over-exerciser. I don't know if that's a term, if not, I just made it up. This is what I tend to do. Let's say I had a bad weekend of overeating, eating too many sweets or I'm just plain feeling like I'm too fat and something desperate has to be done. I go to the gym and I kill myself. I kill myself through exercise. I am not in shape, but I know that I can just push my body to the limit. I'm not talking about here and there just pushing a bit, I'm like dragging myself through the mud kind of exercise. An hour on the eliptical, thirty minutes on the stairs and I haven't even touched the weights yet... I might do the weights, but probably not since I am so fatigued. For years I did this in college. Same thing expecting different results. Sometimes I would keep this exercise up for a week, maybe two. Ususally it lasted about three days. It burned hundreds of calories but it took everything I had out of me. I wonder how much better grades I would have gotten had I just taken a twenty minute walk and used the rest of the time studying. I'm not going to think about that because the past is in the past. (Ben is always telling me that regretting things will not make them any better, just learn and move on.)

So now I am learning. Start small. Just a walk here and there. Then a walk every day. I have been trying to walk about 3-4 times a week. My problem right now is the fact that my two year old does NOT want to sit in the stroller and so he tends to slow me down. In these moments of frustration I just thank the Lord that he CAN walk and that we are able to go outside and at least I'm not inside sitting around doing nothing.

This week I'm going to try something new. I have decided to wake up at 5:45, pump (because Aria is sleeping 10-11 hours at night so I wake up hurting), have my quiet time and then go for a quick walk/run of about a mile around our neighborhood around 7-7:15 while Ben is still home with the kids and they are still asleep. We will see how well this works.

On my walk/run I just kept thinking about how much more energy I will have because I am helping my heart and lungs get into shape. My muscles will be stronger and I will be much healthier. I just kept thinking that I want this to be a healthy start to the day and I will continue to move and be active throughout the day, this is just the start.

I realized then (as I was running/walking) that the way I used to exercise was not giving me energy, but taking it away. It's interesting that I had never thought of it like this before. We need to exercise so that we have more energy, not less. Right now in this stage for me I need to just do as much as I can and then give my body the rest it needs. I don't need to try to lose 5 pounds in a week, I just need to try to get my blood flowing today. I just need to make wise choices today.

Okay, those are my thoughts on exercise. :) Not your typical thoughts, but they are thoughts none the less.