This post is a bit late but in a way, its timely. And somehow, that statement made sense in my head.
Most readers know that I’m overweight. In fact, I classify as morbidly obese when you ask the official weight scorekeepers at the doctor’s office. This year I was blessed with my insurance covering my joining a medically monitored weight loss program at a local hospital (via their bariatric services group). I went through orientation and had a few visits under my belt before this whole kidney stent thing started. Since, I have had to put myself on hold with the program – once I’m back to my normal self, then I can restart the program where I left off.
What I want to ramble on about today is about my visit with the Physical Therapist.
I didn’t get fat (oh no, the f word) by loving to exercise. As a teen and college-aged woman, the exercise came in my natural environment: bike riding to classes, household chores, dancing the night away, always taking stairs, etc (you can figure out which ones are high school and which are college *laughs*). I did not eat a lot and I was always on the go.
Once I got married – my life changed. I went from running around campus and from party to party (dancing) with going to work, a desk job, and within a couple years after, having children. My life went from super charged to super not. Its not like my fiber art hobbies are energy based. My weight slowly came on over the years.
One key thing is that I never learned to enjoy organized exercise. When I exercise, I think about all the things I could be doing instead. To me, set exercise time feels like a waste of time. I mean – I’m not the only one with a crap-ton of things to finish by the end of the day, am I?
So when Mo, my Physical Therapist wanted to talk about my regular exercise plans – you can just imagine what I was thinking. She went through a list of easy to perform exercises and I just wasn’t feeling it. I really do not enjoy it. I mean – come on, I have a weight bench in my basement. I just want to feel like I’m doing something.
So after that lecture, I figured I had to drag myself out every night for a 20-30 minute brisk walk or jog. Keep the heart rate up and try not to think about how I’m wasting time. Exciting stuff right there.
Fast forward a week and give me a really frustrating day at work. By the time I left work, I really was wound up pretty tight. Add in a sprinkling of a couple terrible drivers and I was just “there” by the time I got home. I wanted to explode. But, as I pulled down the road towards my driveway, I reminded myself to “not explode” .. to “keep it together” … polite, professional, and prompt… yup. That’s me.
And then – as if a lightening bolt cracked over my head… that is NOT me. As a kid, I was pretty aggressive. (read as: loved to get into fights) but… we all know that’s not acceptable behavior. And as I grew up, I repressed all of those feelings … and maybe repression isn’t what I should be doing. I should redirect those feelings… redirect them into what?
I made a decision and went straight to the fitness super center. I was getting a punching bag.
And would you believe that apparently, that day was the day to buy a bag. We get there, all the bags are on sale… a couple were display only and the only bag type I wanted was one of those… display only, clearance price. It was way up high on a shelf – never used.
They get it down and I get to the register… no SKU code. So, they call back and while I was already expecting to get 50$ off the bag, I got an additional 20$ off!
It was exercise, but the whole time I spent hitting that bag I was able to really meditate on why I was frustrated, why my day was crappy, why I actually need to let it go, and and and.. I was mindful of what I was doing and in the end, 20 minutes flew by and it was one of the best workouts I had ever had.
So… Mo – I haven’t talked to you yet but you were right.. find something you really enjoy. But my advise to everyone who is looking for that something they enjoy, don’t just assume you are going to find it in the standard list of exercises.
p… I am still alive and I’m actually pretty darn healthy. I really do need to take a new personal photo because that one doesn’t exactly represent who I am anymore.
Well – good news: I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. I’m still around – just busy as can be and trying to be as focused as possible.
For those of you who follow my 
I know that many of my readers are fellow fiber bloggers so I suppose this question is more for them – do you wake up each morning expecting to post… expecting to put some poignant words down onto virtual paper? And then, not only do you fail at being poignant in all aspects of your day that day, but you write nothing. And then… you rinse and repeat the same behavior for the next day and the day after until, as it turns out, you have done NOTHING with your blog (outside of your 
