I LOVE SPINNING!

for as long as i can remember, forced exercise has been the bane of my existence. gym class was brutal. games were always fun. like when we'd play tennis, floor hockey, volleyball…anything BUT dodgeball. but then came the weeks of "presidential fitness". as if the president really cared how many pull ups i could do in a minute. (perhaps if we were in a communist regime and they were keeping tabs on the youth coming up in the ranks of the army….. but i digress…) running the mile took me for.e.ver. more so b/c i despised it than my actual level of fitness. not that i was a fit tween … or teen… or young adult. in college i had a job working in the school's weight room. i was allowed to use the equipment anytime i was at work. pretty sweet deal to keep away those freshman 15 or 20 or 25. i can count on one hand the amount of times i hopped up on that stupid treadmill. amazingly, i didn't gain weight during those four years. well, if i did, it wasn't too much. i always felt comfortable in my own skin.

and then i had babies….. bazinga. even with my two pregnancies, i felt like i kept the weight gain to a healthy level. HOWEVER…. i'm fairly certain that after the babies were born every square inch of me went back to a spot other than it's regularly assigned position. every. square. inch. and then i hit 30 and my metabolism shouted, "i'm goin' on break!" he hasn't come back. so, i decided it was time to force myself to exercise. i started small. yoga and pilates dvds. i loved it. then i tried some more intense cardio style stuff…. p90x. pretty intense. loved it, but not something i'd do forever. i got more into rollerblading, biking, and then i decided to take the plunge. the dreaded R WORD…… running. i really enjoyed it. i would get connor off to school then meggie and i would hit the open road. and then winter came. that alone can be a deterrent to a newbie. but i stuck it out for a while, until meg got sick. i couldn't put her through the cold and wind while she was sniffling and coughing. we put away our jogger until spring.

amazingly, i was pumped to get back into it once the air warmed up a bit. but when summer came i was babysitting and just didn't get a good groove going. so, i went back to my casual stuff at home. for some reason, it was super hard to get into running this fall. meg's head hit the canopy of the stroller but she was convinced she needed it. i wasn't feeling the same enjoyment as last fall. i knew we needed a change. so, nathan heard the new gym was going to be opening this month and he suggested that as our christmas gift to each other. normally, i would've balked at that idea, but i for whatever reason, i decided to give it a whirl. i have LOVED it. i can treadmill while watching tv… huge help to distract me from my hatred of running. i really dig the pool. swimming has always been a fave. and today for the first time ever i tried a spinning class. NEW FAVORITE! it was so fun! i thought i'd be hating it by the end, but it really went fast and the teacher was surely part of that. she was excellent. not super perky or even super crazy fit (you know, like jillian michaels-style crazy), but really excited and encouraging. plus, she had a killer mix of jams. most of it was random and i had never heard of it, but the first song made me laugh out loud…. will smith's "gettin' jiggy wit it". struck me as absolutely hilarious. best part was watching my aunt and two other ladies from church get jiggy wit it.

i will definitely be hitting the spinning class again. totally great workout and super fun at the same time.