It is no secret that I haven’t been the best about going to the gym since I hit goal weight/got the divorce. Frankly, I have probably worked out an average of once a month over the past year–give or take. I have stayed pretty active–who wouldn’t with two kids–but there’s nothing like a good hour-long run to nowhere to get the juices flowin‘.

I just couldn’t put my brain around taking my kids to the gym. That is, until the guy I am seeing* asked me “How are you feeling?” and I said, “Okay.” and he said, “Just okay? Maybe you outta get back to the gym.” Yeah–he said it just like that–out of the blue and with no warning that his question was loaded. And I thought, “Yikes! He’s right. And I really can’t claim any good reason for not going.”

My kids were with their dad Monday night–which eliminated all excuses for not going. So, bright and early yesterday mornin‘ I dug out the sports bra, laced up the shoes and headed out.

I fully expected to fall on my face after about 15 minutes. A year is a long time to barely work out and expect to have any stamina. You may recall that my first workout of the MegaChallenge was a 700 stride 7 minute affair. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out an hour-long 9500 stride (that’s nearly 6 miles!) run on my elliptical buddy (124/200).

Yeah!

And it felt amazingly fantastic!!!

So, having broken the mental barrier, I got up a second batch of gumption and packed the kids up for their first return trip to the gym in over 2 years. Images of screaming childcare workers chased me the entire way there, but I shook them off and kept driving.

I signed them in–fully expecting the staff to say, “Oh no! We remember your kids! They poop their pants to get out of here. We’ll be calling for you in moments. Don’t bother, lady!” When no one said anything, I took off for the elliptical machine telling myself, “If you can just get a sweat–it doesn’t have to be a full workout–you can walk out of here happy.”

Great news! I got an entire hour-long run in! 10,000 strides of sweaty bliss (125/200). I got to listen to my favorite sweat-inducing songs on the Zen I bought when I hit goal weight. Yeah, I finally got a 40 gig (I think it is gig–for all I know it is nano or terrabytes) MP3 player and have used it about a dozen times–after 2 years of only 30 songs to choose from you would think the musical options alone would have gotten me to the gym more.

My girlfriend who was MegaChallenging with me is also back on the wagon. Cool, no?? So, the MegaChallenge is back on! I know! I know! It was supposed to be 200 workouts in a year–but no one said that I couldn’t take a year-long hiatus in the middle of it.

Shut up!

It is my blog and my challenge and I make the rules.

It’s good to be the queen!

*Don’t ask. That’s all you are getting for now.