Move it, Move it

This week has been all about getting into the habit of exercising.  For the most part, I succeeded, although most studies say it takes a full three weeks for anything to become truly an ingrained behavior.

I took brisk walks through the neighborhood before work, found forty five minutes to hit the gym before dinner, sweated profusely through a fun and utterly exhausting kickboxing/dance class, followed a friend on a short, easy hike to a roaring waterfall, and spent hours exploring Seattle on foot.

Of course, it was a slight problem that that exploration wound up at my favorite food vendors in Pike Place Market, a gourmet diner and several bakeries, but we're taking baby steps here, right?*  

I did order the brûléed grapefruit instead of fries

Even on a ridiculously scheduled days, I got in a few minutes of ab crunches and stretches on my bedroom floor, and walked up the stairs between floors at the office.

It felt great.

I was already pretty active before this project started.  Episodically so, but I wasn't a slug.   So it's definitely going to take a while to convince my body that it should pay attention this time and get its metabolism in gear.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard about exercise was to think about it like brushing your teeth or taking a shower: part of an absolutely required daily routine.**  No matter how busy we are, we find the time to soap up and rinse off.   Now, it's up to me to find the time to "move it" every day, too.

And next time, to avoid the bakeries on the way.

* Note to self:  traveling, particularly to a food town, is a major danger zone for me.  I was drawn like a moth to a flame to old favorites that packed in loads of calories, and to trying new finds as well.  The sense of virtue I had from exercising gave me an illusion of freedom to eat that did not play out on the scale this week.
** I'm still trying to convince my teenagers that this shower thing is truly a daily requirement.