My Real Life

For those of you who are reading this because of the title and are thinking this is a story of courage and triumph, let me stop you right here.

It’s not.

I need to exercise.  I really need to exercise.

I’m not overweight, I’m not out of shape, however, I need to exercise on a regular basis to keep my blood sugar in check and to keep my asthma at bay.  It really is a question of my health, not of vanity.

My 76 year-old father-in-law just joined a gym because he hates that he’s had to stop walking because of the cold.  This guy walks for miles and miles.  I’ve been driving my car, miles from home and the monkeys will yell, “HEY! There’s Grandpa!”

If he can do it, I can certainly do it. 

Just to clarify…he’s not my inspiration.  I mean, yes, he is, but not for the purposes of this post.

Sorry.

For awhile, I used my complete collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer dvd’s to keep me going on the treadmill.  I’d pop one into the portable dvd player and BAM…45 – 50 minutes of treadmill walking in which I was completely entertained.  However, I finished the whole series.  So, then I went through the Angel series.  I’d walk and then during the fight scenes, I’d ramp it up and run through them.

For awhile, I was reading while on the treadmill, but that didn’t work out too well, as my eyesight is poor enough without adding me running while trying to read.

And so…over time, I just stopped running on the treadmill.

It was easy to let it slide.  I’ve been hit with more sinus infections than I can even count, and the jogging didn’t help the constant head pain.  It’s cold outside and the room where the treadmill is used to be a garage, and it gets chilly in there and my asthma is cold induced asthma.

See, I can rationalize my way out of anything.

Then, my birthday rolled around and my Daddy gave me this:

Yeah baby!  Glee…Season One, Volume I: The Road to Sectionals.

I’ve been re-inspired.

There are no fight scenes, but there is plenty of running to be done during the song/dance numbers.

We had baked ziti tonight.  A no-no for me on so very many levels, health-wise.

So, when dinner was over and the monkeys were happily playing, Glee and I hit the treadmill.  Burned 300 calories and ran/walked for 47 minutes.

Is it corny to say that I am positively gleeful about this new routine?