Truly Inspirational

This week has offered me a glimpse of what my life will be like when both of my kids are in school every day.  I was able to talk the owner of the summer camp that my daughter is attending this week to take my son as well.  Even though he’s not potty trained yet, she decided that she wanted his tuition enough to deal with his diapers.  So both of my kids are in school this week for 2.5 hours each morning!  What have I done with my time?  Worked out of course.  And went to the grocery store…alone.  Which is pure bliss for a stay at home parent.  It’s been a good week so far.

So far this week, I’ve had three great workouts in a row.  Today’s treadmill session at the gym went longer than it was supposed to because I felt so good running that I just didn’t want to stop!  The plan was for a short 15 minute treadmill warm up followed by a 30 minute weight lifting session.  But after the initial 15 minutes, I felt great–like I had just warmed up.  So I stayed on the treadmill and ended up running 4.6 miles in 39 minutes on a fairly challenging “all terrain” program that consisted of rolling hills.  I didn’t have time to hit the weights when I was finished because I still needed groceries before picking up the kids.  Either way it was a great workout.

It seems as if my eating is also mostly under control and my weight was down a bit this morning when I stepped on the scale.  Maybe things are settling down a bit in my head.  That for me is the biggest battle–wrapping my mind around what needs to be done in order to attain my fitness goals.

Whenever I take a hiatus from the gym, I always find something to write about when I return.  Yesterday was no different.  I was running on the treadmill (which are elevated in a loft above the rest of the gym so you can see everything going on in the gym below you) when a  woman walked in the door carrying a diaper bag and two infant car seats containing her twins.  They looked to be about 6 months old.  The woman dropped the babies off at the in-gym child care, walked up stairs and hopped on the treadmill.  20 minutes later, she rushed down the stairs.  When I got off the treadmill and went downstairs to shower, I passed by her.  This time, she was sitting on a recumbant bicycle with a blanket, a bottle, and one of the twins.  She took turns feeding the baby and using the baby as a weight to get an upper body workout at the same time she was peddling the bicycle.  Talk about multi-tasking.

I came away from the gym that day with two things:  a really good workout and a really good feeling.  Watching what this woman was going through to get her daily exercise really put my trivial trials in perspective.  I have no excuses for not working out.  If she can organize her life and time to get it done, then it should be a piece of cake for me.  Right?