2012 Intention: Health

I used to be an exercise junkie. Starting in college, through med school and residency, with a brief hiatus in fellowship when we moved here and couldn't afford a gym membership and hurt my foot so I couldn't run...I worked out most every day. I ran a marathon in 2000, but messed up my knees a bit and couldn't do those kind of distances anymore, yet I kept running. When time was short, I cut down minutes but added intensity. Treadmill, elliptical, biking, step aerobics, running outside, free weights, machines...pretty much anything but swimming. I loved exercising, it made me feel alive and healthy, and the toned and fit body was a big motivation, too. It was also a really great connection for G & I---we loved going on long runs on weekend mornings, when the rest of the world was sleeping off their hangovers or lounging in front of the TV. 

Boy were we smug about it, too. When people (whether patients, family, or friends) told me they didn't have time to exercise, I internally blew them off. Come on, just get up a little earlier or go on the way home from work. If I can find time to work out during a grueling pre-work-hour-restriction residency, so can you! Smug smug smug. And I had every intention of continuing the pattern to become a smug pregnant women bouncing into the gym until the day I delivered...and then a smug mom, teaching her kids the value of physical activity by my own example.

And then I got pregnant. And the smugness wound up in the toilet around week 5 and I haven't gotten it back. I have not exercised regularly since April of 2009. I won't go into all my excuses for why, I just really really want to change this.

So I'm resetting the same goal I had in 2011---to try for SOME form of exercise most days---NOT including my walking commute. Whether its 30 minutes on the elliptical (we bought this at the end of my 1st pregnancy, thinking we would have a hard time going to the gym but could certainly exercise at home post-baby...HAH!) or 10 minutes of crunches (need to build up my abs after tearing them during this delivery) or even a few minutes of toddler lifting (great for the deltoids!) I just want to get back in the habit of moving and using my body. I decided to try for every day, because I know that if I say "3 days a week"  I will put if off and then something will come up. I purchased a GroupOn for 10 classes at a neighborhood yoga studio and I'm going to my first class (my first class of yoga EVER) tomorrow.


Wish me luck.

I've decided to reassess my goals quarterly, so at the change of each season this year I'll see how I've fared, and readjust if it is a dismal failure.