i’m not really sure what hit me on monday, but i gave loki a bath, cleaned the house, and then decided that i wanted to go buy zumba for my wii. their marketing team must be getting paid great because right after i saw the commercial, i got off my ass and bought it.
i’ve never been able to stick to an exercise routine for more than a couple months. it’s actually quite a miracle that i weigh less than 120 pounds and have a desk job. first it was crossfit (loved it, but i couldn’t justify spending $85/month AND paying for welding classes AND paying for cessna flight training at the time). then it was planet fitness–brett and i would go every day after work with a friend of ours. he moved away, and brett and i started going less and less. so then brett bought a bunch of home gym equipment, and i bought a big elliptical/stair machine. it’s all in the garage, and i haven’t used the damn thing in like a year. having workout equipment in the garage sucks for 3 reasons. 1) the garbage is down there, and it smells rancid. 2) it’s always hot in charleston, except for like 3 months out of the year. which is not only miserable, but it makes said garbage smell even more putrid. and 3) there is nothing to distract you in the garage like a TV or scenery. just music and the wall. point being, working out in the garage just plain sucks.
then i got pregnant and did absolutely nothing but sit on my ass for about 7 months until i couldn’t take it any longer and i bought the little elliptical that is now under my desk. i kept it at home for the last 2 months of my pregnancy and pedaled 6-7 miles every day. i credit that little machine with not losing my mind in the end. my pregnancy was as close to perfect and painless as is physically possible, but hormones are a BITCH. it was my saving grace. i also came out weighing less after the pregnancy than i did before i started. (the other part of that is because there was no more room inside me for food, so i could barely eat for the 9th month without having trouble breathing and having wicked chest pains. the pitfalls of being tiny. i am not model skinny, but i am very compact.)
once i got back to work, i put my little elliptical under my desk in my cube. i’ve been pedaling between 30 minutes and an hour every day. and since i’ve been doing that, i’ve gotten into the habit of counting calories. i never over eat because i hate feeling stuffed, but never in my life have i paid attention to calorie intake. since i started keeping track on myfitnesspal.com a month ago, i’ve lost 5 pounds. i am actually somewhat health conscious now, which is a first in my life. (sidebar: i bought a fitbit on monday, and i convinced brett to go in with me as well. here’s to hoping we get hooked like everyone else i’ve talked to. i feel like i will, because the numbers are motivating me already. i just need to keep this habit going.)
and then came zumba. since monday, i’ve done it every night after dinner for 45 minutes. medium length routine, medium intensity, sweat my ass off. it claims it burns 450-ish calories. i absolutely love it. it feels like the time just flies by because i’m too busy trying to figure out the moves. and i am very happy to announce that after 4 nights of practice, i know about 5 dances ALMOST all the way. tonight i did this irish jig-like dance that i had never done before, and it’s my new favorite. this is not to say i am a good dancer now, because i’m not. that will never happen. but i’m no longer flailing about cluelessly and spinning in circles in the nursery.
yes, the wii is now in the nursery. for 2 reasons. 1) i don’t want brett watching me zumba like an idiot, and 2) it’s the only room with space where i don’t have to move shit out of the way. after 2 years of sitting beneath our TV stand unused, it has now gotten more use in the last 4 days than it has since i bought it. the only reason i bought it in the first place was brett and i were hanging out at my first apartment in charleston 3 years ago, bored and drunk, and we wanted to play raving rabbits because we heard we could steer go-carts with our asses. yes.
anyway, now caylin sits and watches me every night from her crib while brett works out in the garage (poor, traumatized child). then we take showers. then he plays his video games while i work on websites and/or watch TV. put caylin to sleep at 10. watch our shows if there are any. go to bed around midnight. up at 7. go to work. come home. cook and eat dinner. repeat.
that has been our life this week. i’m not complaining about having a routine, but the routine itself makes me realize how there really are not enough hours in the day. after all is said and done, we have like 3 hours at night to relax. even fewer if it takes caylin a while to pass out. which makes me ever more grateful to have a job i enjoy that doesn’t stress me out, and coworkers who are my buddies.
tonight i am also grateful for:
- the 25 extra minutes brett watched caylin so i could take a bubble bath and listen to athenaeum on spotify (it’s been almost 3 years since i’ve had a bubble bath, wtf is wrong with me?)
- sweatpants
- red wine
- the fact that i gave birth to a baby who sleeps for 9 hours straight every night
amen.