Choose You Blog

We as women work much like a computer.

On the surface it may appear that we’re focused on one task, but if you could see the workings of our brains (like a cartoon bubble over our heads), you’d see a million other tasks running in the background.

We’re making lists, lining up our calendars, worrying about what our kids will wear to school tomorrow, solving a problem we’re having at work, thinking about the people we need to call back and trying to figure out where we’re going to vacation this year.  Most of the time we can multi-process without fail–all while running the concession stand for our kids’ little league.

But every once in a while our computers crash.

Add one small process to the heap and it all comes tumbling down.  Literally.

This is the newest fashion accessory I’m sporting for the summer thanks to a distracted brain.

There is a limit to how much we can do, and if we don’t listen to the small clues our body gives us it will send us a message we can’t ignore.

I’ve been trying to be more mindful of staying in the present and giving myself a break (pun intended) since my fall.  Some things will just have to wait.  I hope people will understand and if not, oh well.  They’re not the ones having to get their husband to fasten their bra.

When she has two good hands, Amie Adams blogs here every Sunday and on her own blog MammaLoves.

Three kids, a full-time job, a house, a spouse, errands, pets, friends…life is full.  Mine is not unique.  I am not unique.  Women have so much to do.

It’s hard to find time to be active when my life is so “active.”

I know I could get up earlier, but isn’t getting a decent amount of sleep good for your health too?  Why couldn’t that have been one of the Choose You challenges??

Most days I feel like I’m running from one engagement to another.  Get up go to work.  Finish work get to a baseball game.  Game is over get the kids home and into bed. Time to go to sleep.  And that’s a weeknight.  My weekends are doubly packed.

I’m not complaining.  My life is rich.  But I need to find time.  Thirty minutes.  I’ve been trying, but not as successful as I’d hoped.  Maybe I have too many interests, too many distractions.

I’m having a hard time giving up things I love to make time for my own health.  I need to figure out how to love getting healthy AND do all of those other things.

Any ideas??

Some people are blessed with an abundance of energy.

Me?

I love to nap.

I’ve always wanted to be that person who craves exercise, who looks for more opportunities to get outside and get my blood pumping.  But I’ve never been that person.

I want to be able to wear my boys out.  I want to be able to join in on every activity.  I want to be that woman with the glow in her cheeks and the energy of a kid.

This commitment to be active three times a week is a good start for me, but I realize it’s just a drop in the bucket.  Tonight that has me down.

How do I become that woman who craves vegetables and fresh fruit?  That healthy woman that looks great for her age?

Can I change at 40?  Is it possible?

Tonight it doesn’t feel like it is.

I’m on Week 2 of my Choose You commitment–to be active 3 times a week.

My Choose You check-in day is Tuesday, so my workout week starts that day.  This week, I had completed my three days of being active by Thursday.

It felt weird.

I hustled my butt on the treadmill for thirty minutes a day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Thursday was by far the easiest day.  I worked up a sweat, my heart was going, but my legs didn’t hurt too much.  I had that good feeling you get when you can feel your muscles, but no pain.  Friday rolled around and all of the sudden I had this weird thought.

I actually felt like I “should” get my 30 minutes in that day.

Okay, you have to know me to know how weird that thought was.  I love naps!  I was an athlete in a previous life, but I’ve never been the biggest fan of feeling my pulse all over my body.  Here I was wanting to go work out?!  This was only Week 2.  Hasn’t been long enough to form a habit.

What is happening to me?!

Friday was gorgeous.  The sun was out.  It was warm.  Off I went this time in my own neighborhood–music in my ears.

For the record, even using the incline on the treadmill it’s not the same as the long, rolling hills you get out on the street.  I was worried that I wouldn’t keep up the pace I do on the treadmill.  Thought if the beat of the music slowed down my pace might too.  I consciously kept pushing myself to keep up my rhythm.  I checked the clock on my ipod at what felt like the halfway point and sure enough I was fifteen minutes into it.  So far so good.

Then came the turn for home.

Is it really supposed to be that hard to breathe?  Were eyebrows created just to keep the sweat out of your eyes (thank goodness for my bushy ones)?  Jeez that last fifteen minutes was tough!  I tend to zone out in the gym.  There isn’t much thinking that goes into walking in place staring at the wall.  Out on the street, I was looking at gardens, watching for uneven sidewalks, trying not to get hit by cars, figuring the best route and watching my time.  Honestly, I probably was a minute short, but I was toast.

I did not enjoy those thirty minutes on Friday.  What was I thinking adding an extra day of exercise?  But you know what?  I was so freaking happy I worked out four times this week.

So I don’t like exercise yet, but I love that I’m doing it.

Amie Adams doesn’t love exercise yet, but when she does you can bet she’ll be talking about it here and on her personal blog Mamma Loves.

Does cutting all the dreadlocks off your teenage son’s hair while he wiggles and squirms count as being active?  What about chasing the dog around the dining room table 75 times when she has yet another Lego or scrap of paper she shouldn’t have?

No?!

Thank goodness I actually went to the gym this past week then.

It’s only been one week, but on the other hand it’s been a whole week.  I haven’t gone every day.  I haven’t worked out for hours each time, but I have been to the gym three times.  And I’m damned proud of myself for getting my butt there.

To be honest, it’s not like getting to the gym was the issue for me.  My office building has a gym for all the tenants.  It’s free, I have to pass it to get to my car and it’s rarely busy.  It was the actual getting on the treadmill and continuing to move for 30 minutes in a row that held me up.

Turns out I kinda like it (and that is just between you and me).

The sweating thing?  Not so bad.  My iPod?  Has plenty of “f*ck yeah! I’m the bomb” songs on it.  And the treadmill?  You can use it to practice your strut down the catwalk (I did mention the gym is fairly empty most times, right?).

There was the one wave of fear that washed over me on the first day.

I was wearing yoga pants and walking at a quick pace and I thought “Oh crap!  What if the constant friction of my thighs rubbing together sets these pants on fire?!”  It wasn’t the burns so much that worried me as the obituary, “Local woman sets fire to self while walking.”  I mean that is NOT the kind of thing you want popping up on Facebook.

Amie Adams has committed to exercise three times a week for the next 12 weeks.  She thinks of gyms as Temples of Horror and treadmills as Tools of Torture, so this should be interesting.  You can follow her progress here every week and check out what she’s doing in the meantime on her personal blog MammaLoves…

There I was standing in Times Square listening to speakers like American Cancer Society national spokesperson for Choose You Amy Swygert and celebrity ambassador Ellen Pompeo talk about the Choose You campaign.

Amy Swygert

Ellen Pompeo

Times Square.  It was surreal.

I’m a mom of three boys who lives in the DC suburbs.  What was I doing in NYC with little more than 24 hours worth of antibiotics in my system battling strep?

Oh yeah!  I agreed to make a commitment to improve my health–a commitment long overdue (as evidenced by the latest onset of strep brought on by trying to cram too much into my life) and blog about it for the world to read.

I had put every single thing I could think of before taking care of my body, and it was catching up with me.  I tried to ignore it.  I didn’t want to have to work for my health.  I didn’t want to give up delicious food I love so much (ice cream anyone?).  I didn’t want have to exercise (lunges don’t make me happy).

But here I am.  So why?

Last year my very healthy best friend went in for a routine physical with a new doc.  Her doctor, who I consider an angel, suggested a mammogram even though my friend was only 37 just to establish a baseline.  Well you know what happened next.  They found cancer–CANCER!–in my 37 year old best friend.  A mother to three little kiddos all under the age of 5 at the time!

My brave, incredible, wonderful, fighter of a best friend made a choice about her treatment that might have seemed radical to some considering the very early time of detection.  She opted for a bi-lateral mastectomy.  She chose her health.  She said it was simple.  She was a mom and she intended to be one for a very long time.

I want to thank her every day.  She made a choice that ensures I get a best friend who is around for a long time.

So I might think I hate to exercise.  I might miss my yummy snacks.  But if she can make a choice to choose her health, I can too.  Shoot, it’s the least I can do.

So yesterday I made the commitment to be more active.  It’s my first step.

And just to prove how much I need to be held accountable for this, I made my pledge while I was in Times Square.

There’s me.  I’m going to be more active.  Have to now.  It said so on a billboard.

You can make a commitment of your own and share it too.  I’ll be back at least once a week to let you know how I’m doing.  I look forward to doing this together.  It’s always more fun when you have friends to complain about it with, right?  I promise to cheer you on too!

Choose you today.  Seriously.  If I can do it, you can too.

When Amie isn’t popping penicillin, she’s hanging out at the ball field or pounding out her incredibly deep thoughts on her personal blog Mamma Loves.  Oh yeah and if you’re the FTC, her trip to NYC was underwritten by the American Cancer Society (though she did pay for a cab to one of the events herself because her heels?!  While smokin’ they were far too high to be walking six blocks).