This blog was originally conceived with at least SOME influence from my efforts (and Mr. Matt’s) to get in shape so it’s fitting that from time to time I would a) actually do something that might get me in shape and b) actually post it to the blog. Clearly that’s been a lot to ask. I would say that I haven’t REALLY done anything that resembled regular exercise since the Hank Aaron 5K. The irony is that we thought that might finally be a good time to kick this thing off, you know, since we’d put it off all summer for almost no reason.
Right, anyhow, so no working out… I basically hadn’t been to the gym since March although I guess I can make some excuses: busy with baby preparations, other physical activities in the summer, just plain laziness…okay so I could only come up with three and they’re pretty weak. We had started running shortly after my son was born and went at that enthusiastically enough for it to become an actual reason to not go to the gym. The running stopped after the 5K. I’m not sure exactly why but it just did. I know that when my wife went back to work there was definitely more of a struggle for time. Three weeks went by and somehow I continued to miraculously lose weight. It wasn’t a miraculous AMOUNT of weight, it was just amazing that I could stop exercise, keep eating like crap and suddenly begin losing weight. Go figure. Well, even that tapered off and I knew things were going to get sideways on me if I didn’t start doing SOMETHING. I have a fall volleyball league but 45 minutes once a week isn’t going to cut it. There appeared to be only one solution. In the back of my brain I began to recall that my gym opened at 5am. Normally I am not a morning person. This is largely because I prefer to stay up late, barely get enough sleep to operate and then run around like a lunatic so that I can get to work on time. This technique has served me well for many years. Ok, it hasn’t served me well but I’d been doing it and dammit I was comfortable with how stupid it was. My wife has always tried to talk me into going to bed at the same time as her and I’ve rarely allowed it. I gave in a couple weeks ago and went to bed at 10pm. You know what happened? I woke up, unassisted at 4:30am. I stared at the clock, realized that not only had I woken up 90 minutes early but I could blame my wife, and then promptly went back to sleep. This experience came back to the front of my mind at the same time the gym schedule occurred to me. Hmmm…if I went to bed at 10pm my wife would be happy, I’d wake up in time to go to the gym and nobody would miss me since wife and baby don’t usually see me before 6am anyway. I bet I could make it to the gym, check that off my list for the day and get to work on time. It would be a perfect way to sneak in my exercise needs without having to give anything up!