Please Keep Trying!

Since that wee bout with Leftie last week, I’ve been pretty much holed up in the apartment. No going out, no driving around much and absolutely no exercise. While I have plenty to keep me busy here, I have to get my thirty minutes in at the gym, but can’t.

That sucks. I’m starting to get a bit depressed and I keep imagining my waistline is exploding into infinity for lack of movement. I keep poking David and asking “Am I getting fat?” Or I think every morsel I sneak past my lips has twice as many calories since I’m not exercising. The walls are closing in, the elliptical is mocking me from afar and all the bad foods are trying to climb down my gullet against my will!

Since I began to lose weight three years ago, exercise has become my Prozac, my Zoloft and my lifeline to sanity. I need it like an addict needs their fix. I literally can’t be happy without at least three to four days a week of crazy cardio.

I first discovered how much exercise really did for me about two years back when I was unable to get to the gym for two weeks. I was cranky and unbearable to be around after seven days of no exercise. After day eleven I was weepy and in no mood to be with people. Getting back to the gym just once after that time, switched my attitude and general outlook back to happy and life-affirming.

How can this be? Studies have shown people who exercise regularly have fewer instances of depression, have more energy and are generally more emotionally fit than people who don’t have a set exercise routine.

I sleep better when I get my cardio in and am more creative to boot. If I concentrate on a few problems before I exercise, I seem to come up with a slew of solutions and alternatives during my workout. All the oxygen getting to the brain during a rigorous workout helps the ol’ noggin function at a higher rate.

Being overweight tends to drag the mind and spirit down, but even thirty minutes of moderate exercise (a leisurely stroll is not moderate exercise FYI) a day will brighten your spirits. Exercising does more than trim your waistline; it imparts a positive attitude you need to succeed with your weight loss goals. Even if you can only start with fifteen minutes a day (which is what I did) I say go for it. You’ll see in two weeks your fifteen minutes morph into twenty, then thirty, then you’ll be adding on the wights, and the ab exercises. You’ll get hooked and never want to be away from a place you can get your workout in, be it a gym or an outdoor track.

Which is why I’m up on my second story balcony, pining for my Life Fitness trainer like Juliet for that knucklehead Romeo: Elliptical, elliptical I know exactly where thou art; being used and abused at the local Y! Damn it! I thought I was the only one!

Oh well, I’ll get back soon…and make that two-timing piece of hardware pay!