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Monday, November 19, 2012

Discipline

I woke up about 20 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off...its an ungodly hour. 

Dark and so so quiet...

and earlier than most people could possibly imagine.

I've been told that the weather here where I live hits its low right about the time I get up.

Which doesn't actually surprise me this time of year.

My first thought was "It's cold."

Then I heard the heater kick on.

My second thought was "its a cardio day. UGH!"

Instead of getting up and getting dressed, I burrowed further down into the covers and tried to pretend I had an hour instead of 20 minutes.

I have basically two choices for wee-hours-of-the-morning-cardio - Zumba in my living room or my outside, extremely brisk, nearly jogging walking routine. Neither is perfect for me, but will do to build my discipline and resolve. 

I'm so very bad at the first that more of my time is spent trying to figure out how to make my body do "that" than is spent sweating. Its fun in theory. But I'm not good at it and don't feel like I get the exercise I could get if I was better at it.

And the first is subject to the whims of weather.

Let me be really clear here...I'm practicing a slow and steady lifestyle change approach to exercise. I'm not out running marathons or doing a couch to 5 K challenge. I'm just trying to do something sustainable each day to make my body healthy.

In the winter its harder....

I'm not a person who likes the cold...its why I've chosen to live where I live. Chilly weather for me is exciting if I can stay inside by the glow of candles, drinking hot tea or coffee and making soup and fresh bread.

Most everyone I know loves the snow, looks forward to it even. 

I would rather watch it fall from the glorious perch of my front window, wrapped in fleece and slippers.

Even the joy of my children anticipating snow and new mittens and warm jackets has not given me a desire for colder weather.

I read once that the great choreographer Twyla Tharp is constantly in pursuit of warmth, that she finds the most desirable of conditions when the skin was just perched on the edge of breaking into a glistening sweat, that she throws open all the windows of her home in July to let in the sweltering heat. 

Well...ok...I'm not THAT into the heat...but I do get where she's coming from.

I often judge the temperature during my morning cardio by how long it takes me to get warm, then how long to sweat and then how long before I have to take off my gloves, hat, or jacket. 

If I am still wearing full regalia by cul-de-sac 3 (or song 3 for Zumba), its cold. 

And then...

The alarm.

Time to go...

Time to move...

To zumba or to walk...

To walk or to zumba...

This morning it was cul-de-sac two

Not too bad.

Peace, ya'll!

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Good on you for getting out there! I don't know if I'd have had the wherewithal. I've been doing a LOT of burrowing back under the covers for "just a few more minutes" and then running around like crazy trying to make school/work on time. :)