Exercise Isn’t For Whimps

Every year, we have baseball sign-ups for the kids the last two weeks of January.  I am involved with the committee and coach one of our kids teams (in addition to assisting the others).  Since I sit behind a desk and am not real active, sign-ups is generally the key for me to start my exercise program.  After all, keeping up with a team of 8 and 9 year olds is not something for an overweight, out of shape computer programmer.  This year, I had actually gotten a jump start and was spending between 30-45 minutes on the treadmill.

Well, this year, the weekend after sign-ups, we had an accident that totaled our van.  There were injuries around, including a concussion and stitches for my younger son (more on this some other day).  For me, I had a severe right ankle sprain, a tweak in my left knee, and a bruisd left wrist.  Needless to say, since a major part of my workout was time on the treadmill, this put a severe crimp into my exercise plan.  By the time I was moving well enough to get back on the treadmill, the baseball season was well underway, and with 3 kids playing, I had very little time for additional exercise.

After baseball, there were a couple vacations that kept me from starting. (OK, I let them keep me from starting.)  Now that we are home from (most) of our vacations and we are starting school for the year, I didn’t have any more excuses and decided to start back again.  I walked a mile on the treadmill every weekday last week and I did this morning as well.  In addition, this morning I added in crunches, leg lifts, and a handful of stretches.

Wow!  I remember having pains and such when I did this before, but today, my calves were burning when I finished the treadmill.  I generally try to vary the speed, ramping it up during the walk to get more of a workout.  This morning I wasn’t able to vary the speed as much as I normally do.  It is painful, but it is also nice to know that the exercise is accomplishing its purpose.

More on this later when I will hopefully be able to give you an update as to how much weight I’ve lost.  If I lose enough, I won’t be too embarrassed to post a picture.

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