Twitching

I've gotten re-committed to the whole work-out thing. Years ago we sold off a few stock options and bought two high quality pieces of equipment from a local shop -- a really good treadmill and one of those "all-in-one" cables and weights systems you'd find in a gym. We had the cable guy come in and drag some lines down to the basement then connected those lines to a small TV. We were off to slim, trim bodies. Then life got in our way and the equipment got dusty.

The "gym" sits just below the bedrooms. Not just "the" bedrooms, but "their" bedrooms. That means each time the treadmill beeps - beeps when you turn it on, beeps when you set the timer, beeps when you reach cool down, beeps several times when you're done - each time it beeps a child might possibly hear it. It means each time you clink the weights you've lifted against the weights that have remained stacked, one of them may wake up. So we have avoided the gym during sleeping hours.

Of course, its also impossible to sneak down to the gym to work-out during NON-sleep hours when its just one adult and two kids. Heck it was impossible when it was one adult and one kid. And then there's the chaos of piled high cardboard that has overtaken my basement - not to mention the heater, the washer and dryer. . .the stored breakable objects. All things you don't want a two year old climbing around that make it impossible to work out with your son and daughter in the basement with you. Thus dust.

But I got brave. I ventured down. I did it. It beeped and not a single eye opened. I clinked weights and no one but me knew it - well ok Bruce too, but with the noise of the TV in the living room and the dishwasher running he didn't hear me. I watched some cheesey TV and I worked up a sweat. I walked with an incline. I even jogged. I pumped iron! I did it three of the last four nights (Ummm, sure treadmill 3 of the last four. Weights two of the last four. I take days off in between on that.)

Now I feel it. Not muscle pulls and discomfort, but satisfaction. I have those muscle twitches. Anyone that has ever started a work-out program after laying dormant knows what I mean. That bizarre, yet oddly fabulous sensation of newly used muscles still twitching from the activity. You sit and you feel those once sleepy thighs come alive. You're body is mildly achey. You feel tight and a wee bit sore - but at the same time you already feel thinner. You already feel healthier. You know that it matters. You know that you've done something good for yourself.

You may hate the work. You might dislike sweating and getting all sorts of gross, but its a good sweat and gross - you know it. You feel like this is the thing you've been missing. You plan to stick with it no matter how many times in the past you've been in this spot only to walk away from it later.

You're dedicated if for no other reason than to look better than that crank at work you want to continue looking better than. But let's not let her know she's motivating. Deal?