This illustrates a struggle I've been having for the past few months (well, if we're honest, the past year) - the notion of working out. You see, for a small period of time, late 2011-2012, I went to the gym fairly regularly and did Jillian Michaels workouts at home. I broke a sweat, I was sore, I got more comfortable lifting weights in front of that awkward mirror at the gym. I also had our wedding date in sight as a major motivator, and I lived at home so I was spoiled by the fact that my mom cooked dinner and had leftovers waiting for me whenever I got home.
When we got married and moved to St. Louis, while I job hunted I had no excuse not to keep up my work out routine, so I joined a gym and kept up with one or two workouts a week. Then I got a job and just as quickly I dropped my membership. I knew waking up early or going to the gym right after work just wasn't going to happen for me. I traded the expense of a gym membership for a subscription to Birchbox. Priorities. Fast forward a little over a year and not much has changed.
To those of you who maintain a steady workout routine, I applaud you.
To those of you who do so with a spouse and pets, hats off to you.
To those of you who do so with a spouse, pets and kids and get up at the crack of dawn in order to juggle ALL of those things ... I full on bow down to you. You're superhuman.
All of this is to say that it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. And maybe one day I'll join a gym again, I'm not ruling that out. But for now, I'm going to try to show myself a little grace and accept that my preferred form of exercise revolves around being around those I care about. Going on a bike ride with Jonathan. Taking long walks with our pup. So my baby step has been hitting the snooze button less during the week so I can take Clover on a long walk in the morning. She loves it, I love it and it's a peaceful way to start our mornings.
Plus, I'm convinced that holding back a dog that is ravenously trying to catch squirrel after squirrel is some yet-to-be-named arm workout.
