My birthday present to myself

My 34th birthday was in August. I bought myself 18 personal training sessions at the gym on campus. I know myself - I hate to go to the gym. I need someone to be accountable to.

Fast forward to last Monday - my last session. She'd taken my body fat measurements (among other pre-training stuff) at the start, and again at the last session. I'd lost three percent body fat in two months. I'll take it! And since I didn't lose any weight, I took my measurements to see what was going on. An inch and a half in both my waist and hips. I'll definitely take that.

I'll be honest with you, I was ready to quit going. I didn't want to pay for more sessions. And I wanted my time back. But Amanda told me that she was recommending me for the gym's "spotlight of the month" because of my successes, and I just couldn't throw in the towel.

So, I changed my plan; I started working out in the mornings. Less awake time to talk myself out of it, and I rarely got a lot accomplished in my office before my first class anyway. It's a win-win. The first week, I went three days out of four (had other stuff to do on Friday, mainly get stuff ready for ERiC's wedding). This week, I slacked a little bit - two days out of five. Not terrible, but not the five out of five that I'm aiming for.

Of course next week is Thanksgiving, and my stepkids are flying in. Plus, the gym is closed Thursday and Friday and the little kids will be home on Wednesday, so I guess it's two out of five for next week as well.

My plan is to find some 10K or half-marathon races in the nearby area to train for. I know I could run a 10K now, as I ran just short of six miles this morning. The half-marathon, I'm not quite ready for yet. There are actually a few running clubs in town that I'd love to hook up with; just need to figure out the child care issue. I hate running outside in the cold, though. Not much I can do about that.

It's been the best birthday present ever. Making time in my day for ME.