Feel the burn

There once was a time when I hated exercise. I mean, grossly detested it. I think I can trace it back to my first grade P.E. class, where one afternoon, we were given a ball and a field hockey stick and instructed to bat that thing around a field (approximately half a mile, to be precise). I was the very.last.person to finish, and it wasn't like a close-second sort of finish. I was struggling, you guys. In fact, it was the only time I ever cried in school. (Yes, I'll let my faithful readership feel sorry for six year-old me. Let's face it, that's a pathetic mental image. Don't you just want to adopt me?)

I was never grossly overweight, but I was never really content with my post-puberty "blessing" of the curves I got. So, right around the summer of 2007, I decided to take the plunge and join Weight Watchers. Not that I've any ambitions to be a WW poster girl, but I stuck to the program for the better part of a year, and it worked. Had a year or two where things started to look like they'd, ahem, flesh out again, but to this day I am still 40 pounds lighter than my pre-WW bod. It feels good.

And sometimes, I've learned, keeping that weight off involves a lot more than pushing away sweets and deep-fried delicacies (because Lord knows I haven't done that as much as I should). Sometimes you've just got to haul your cookies to the gym and burn some calories.

Sometime in between getting engaged and present day, I found myself becoming a bit more inclined to hit up the cardio/weight equipment (oh, and my Shake Weight. Hate all you want, but that stuff works). At present, our apartment complex has a pretty decent workout center just downstairs. I'd be a fool not to take advantage of that, seriously.

I've gone only sorta-kinda-regularly since we moved here in October, but it always feels dang good. And you guys: remember the girl that hated P.E. class and cried because she couldn't hockey-stick a ball faster than anyone else? That girl ran a mile and a half without stopping.


And what.