Exercise.

Motivating myself to exercise has always been challenging. The last time I lost a decent amount of weight (35 pounds), I got into a routine of exercising 30-45 minutes a day. Mostly it was walking/jogging, but every other day I did free weights. I remember feeling really good when I was in that zone. Of course my train derailed when I had surgery and was out of commission for two months, and then I never got back on. Sad. I get really mad at myself when I think of that. I was halfway to my goal weight then and I started packing it back on.

I did exercise last night, though. I got a new DVD that's a dance workout. I've been wanting to take ballroom dance classes for ages (and Beau and I were signed up for them, but I canceled when my lapband surgery was scheduled three weeks into the eight week class -- hopefully we can sign up again the next time it's offered). So I thought that this DVD would be fun, since it incorporates dance moves while being a solo workout.

I really like it because it has the warmup, cooldown and four dances of increasing intensity on separate tracks, so you can decide how much to do and have it play without having to skip around. I managed 1 and a half dances -- the paso doble and half of the cha-cha-cha (it's the cha-cha-cha rhythm and swively hip action that got me). I would've liked to do the full two, but I was just too winded halfway through the second one. Usually I have this problem when I exercise -- I try to do too much too soon. Must work up to it. :)

I've read mixed reviews of this DVD. Some people didn't like it because it doesn't give a lot of instruction. But I guess I know enough names of dance steps and am coordinated enough to catch on fairly quickly, so I was proud of that. I can't lunge anywhere close to as low as the people on the DVD are doing it, but I'll get there. I remember doing a workout DVD years ago and when I first started it, I couldn't even do half of it. But I got there and I can get there again.

I get bored pretty quickly so I hope that I can motivate myself by having different stuff to do. I have a bellydancing DVD, a tai chi DVD (harder than it looks!) and an indoor walking DVD also. I have a few old VHS tapes but our tape player isn't even hooked up anymore!

It would be great to have a treadmill or stationary bike ( it would probably need to be recumbent because I've tried the regular ones and they hurt me!) but I worry they'd just become clutter catchers like they do in most people's homes. Maybe I can look on Craigslist and see if there are any cheap ones; we can't afford to spend a lot anyway and if it were cheap then I wouldn't feel bad.

Just walking isn't going to cut it -- we live on a short dead-end road and the main road is pretty busy without a sidewalk or anything to walk on. Too bad we no longer live so close to a park with a walking track. There is a park not too far away but the drive over there can be bad depending on the time of day. It also reeks of duck/goose crap a lot of the time because there are so many of them there. Bleh. I like them, they're pretty, but their crap reeks. Maybe I can get there this weekend anyway, although we intend to work in the yard tomorrow and that should provide some exercise.