Wife Like Me

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This morning marked 10 days in a row of exercising 30 minutes or more every day.  As I hopped into the shower afterward, I thought to myself that taking a shower is so much nicer when I have to do it for a reason other than having been smeared with something by one my kids.  I really like taking showers anytime (I just love water of any kind), but there’s something different about rinsing sweat off because I worked hard.  It’s like an affirmation of my accomplishment.

I like having time alone when I exercise.  I try to work out early in the morning, sometimes before even Colin gets up, and almost always before anyone else in our apartment complex is outside.  Walking the three minutes to our gym outside in the fresh air before dawn refreshes my soul.  I love sunrise–I’d forgotten how much.  And since it’s been about three years since I’ve even had the bathroom to myself on a regular basis, having a half-hour or more legitimately to myself gives me an emotional boost. I feel like God and I are the only ones awake and I find I can pray with more gratitude and focus.

Exercise is helping me lose weight!  I’ve lost 5 1/2 pounds and one fat percentage point since I started.

I have time to listen to music.  Right now it’s not great music, academically speaking, but I’m enjoying it and I’m sure I’ll discover more as I go along and get bored with the baby stuff.

I feel happy more of the day.  I find I don’t have to work so hard to be happy.  I don’t have to try so hard to be motivated to pick up the house because I’ve already done something good and feel great about it.  I don’t want to sit on the couch and watch TV so much of the time.

I have a reason to get up in the morning besides someone crying at me.  So much of the last couple of years I’ve woken up to crying babies, and it’s trained me to almost dread waking up.  Now I have an appointment with myself to do something for myself that makes me feel good.  I admit that I still defiantly stay in bed after the alarm rings, but I think that may gradually go away on its own.

I like to have a quantitative measure of what I’m doing.  Changing diapers and making dinner and folding laundry could be quantified, so maybe I should do it with those too.  But with a treadmill it calculates all the numbers for you and you can see as you work just how much work you’ve done and compare it to yesterday.  I like lifting weights, too, because I count as I lift and each time I finish a set it’s like I’ve made it to a goal.  I almost like weights better than cardio because I get to the “I successfully finished something!” point more often.

Tags: exercise, happy, measure, morning, music, Things I Like, work out