Why I Like to Exercise

This is a post I wrote, and never published, back in early February 2013. Oh how much has changed in five years, even more so in the last two years, in my health.  I fell out of my exercise routine in the Fall of 2013 after having some testing done because of a few female issues which resulted in being put on severe physical restrictions that literally said

NO

• bending
• twisting
• pushing
• pulling
• lifting more than 5 pounds

for six straight weeks.  I was also told no running or jumping (because I asked), which meant basically no exercise at all, not even going for a jog.  

Less than a year after that (a year in which I kinda but not quite got back into my workout groove), DS1 and family moved in with us. Nearly 18 months later, they moved out, and its been two years since then, but the stress eating I learned to do during their stay at this little place here keeps rearing its ugly head, and despite good intentions, I have never gotten back to the point, in terms of physical or mental health, that I was at in early 2013.  Even with riding 3-5 days a week for most of 2017, my weight has stagnated.

I really, really need to get back to where I was five years ago. Back when I wrote this

I'm back on the workout bandwagon after having my schedule disrupted for the last half of December.  Other than being mildly sore the first week, I have noticed a few things that made me realize how much different I am in my exercise lifestyle than in my sedentary lifestyle:

1. my skin is clearer.  Weird, and I don't have a scientific explanation for it, but it seems that a good daily sweat (and rinse off) gives me a glow that chases away the dry dull skin of winter.
2. I'm ravenously hungry for protein, but not so hungry for carbs.  This is the exact opposite of how I felt during the few weeks I didn't work out regularly.  Those weeks all I wanted was to eat (and eat, and eat) something crunchy, preferably sweet and crunchy.  The past week those types of foods haven't even sounded appealing.  Give me a pork chop, a venison steak, a chicken breast! 
3. I'm more upbeat.  I noticed this back in 2011 when I first implemented a 5x a week exercise routine.  Working out helps keep me in a good frame of mind and not so prone to feeling depressed.  I might start the day feeling draggy, but after 30 minutes of keeping up with a workout video, or on a 3 mile run, my brain is on overdrive and I have energy flowing through me.  After a week of not exercising at all, the pessimistic overtones had crept back into my life and were fighting for dominance.
4. I have more energy.  Funny thing, how expending a lot of energy creates more energy.  Long lasting energy.  So much so that on my 'day off' from working out, I can barely sit still, I have this urge to be doing things.
5. I'm more limber.  Touch toes?  Yes.  Kick my own height?  Yes.  Two years ago I pretty much had given up on ever being able to do that again.  Thought it was just part of my long lost youth.  Do a back bend?  Well, not yet.  But half-way, and I'm not giving up. . . maybe next year.  Truth be told, I could never do a back bend.  There's a lot of things I never could do before that I do now: butcher chickens, hunt deer, bake bread, quilt, knit. . .
6. My pants fit better all ready.  Two weeks ago, they were tight.  At the end of day five of exercising, they were back to comfy.  I'm kind of hoping to need to buy new pants in 2013. . . pants that are a size smaller than these.
7. I don't feel 41.  Nope.  I honestly feel about 1/2 my age.  Hmmm.  It's hard to remember being 20.5.  That chick had the world by the ba--- well, I'm sure you know the phrase.  She was going places.  The future had nothing but good things in store for her.  She wasn't afraid to tackle anything.  She ran like the Energizer bunny.  How cool it is to feel like that two decades later.  Thirty felt so much older than 41 feels now.

That, and the fact that in the sixteen months since I began my new routine of working out five mornings a week, I have gone from a size sixteen (the largest I'd been even while pregnant eons ago) to a size ten (the size I was after DS2 was born).  I feel like I've gained back the "me" that was lost while rearing children.  Funny thing was, until I started to get myself back, I didn't realize I had missed me.  I just thought I was bummed out about all the challenges and craziness that being a wife and mom brings. All the things that life in the middle stage (not young, but not a senior citizen yet) brings. But now, now I remember the me that I was back in the day.  The more athletic me.  The optimistic me.  The energetic, zealous me.  The me that loved to work hard, that didn't mind sweating or being out of breath.  The me that could work hard without being so out of breath!

That is why I like to exercise.  It gives me me.

Oh my goodness.  I want me back.  I want to not get out of breath just carrying the laundry hamper from the basement to the upstairs master bedroom.  

To quote myself, Thirty felt so much older than 41 feels now.  46 is so much harder than 41 was, and I don't think it really needs to be that drastic of a change in ability in just 5 years. If 41 was easier than 30, 46 feels like I have one foot in the grave.