It's Go Time!

I finally found my fitness motivation.  It's my kids.

A few weeks ago, we got a chin-up bar for Joel.  Everyone in my house can do chin-ups, except me.  Everyone!  You should see Abby go.  Jeff and Joel do those ones when your legs are horizontal at a 90 degrees...I cannot do one - really, I cannot even do half of one.

Two weeks ago, the boys started doing knuckle push-ups - you heard me - push-ups on their KNUCKLES!  I still have to do girl push-ups and not very many at that.  They had a good giggle at that one - they had never seen girl push-ups before.

The final straw...Joel pulled his right quad in hockey this weekend.  On Tuesday, I took him to his physiotherapy appointment and there were a couple of sets of stairs to get to the office.  He hopped on one leg down and up those stairs.  I thought, that looks easy, I can do that.  It's not - try it - just try hopping on one leg up 3 steps.  I have never had a great vertical but wow, that was challenging.

So yesterday, I decided, I cannot be the weak, out-of-shape member of the Dawson family and I stopped making excuses.  I dusted off my runners and went for a 20 minute run using what I learned at a running room course back in 1997 and finished off with sit-ups & push-ups.  This morning, Joel had to be up at 6 am to bike and do his physio stretches so I got up with him and rode the bike for 20 minutes.  I tried to do a chin-up - that one's going to take awhile!  I'm asking Santa to be able to do one by Christmas:).

I have tried many times over the years to establish a fitness routine that I like.  I had success a few different times but have struggled over the past 5 years.  Here's what I have learned about myself; I cannot overwhelm myself - I'm too competitive - if I try something really hard that I can't do, I will give up; fitness activities have to be fun for me and easy to fit into my day; finally, I have to have variety - if I get bored, I will quit.  Knowing all of these things, this time feels different.  I think I will be gentler and more patient with myself.  If it takes me awhile to get to a goal, that's ok - I'm not training for an Iron Man yet:).

Wish me luck - as the Mandelbaum's say in the classic Seinfeld episode - It's Go Time!

Seinfeld - It's Go Time