30 minutes

After much procrastination, I finally started my “prescribed” 30 minute daily workout this morning. (I still want to know that since it was prescribed by my doctor, will my health insurance cover part of the membership costs???)

When Mike and I went to meet with my specialist in December, he said that in order to keep my Fibromyalgia pain in check, I needed to start doing a daily 30 minute workout. He suggested swimming, bicycling, or the elliptical.

Seeing that it’s been forever since I did any type of workout (well – last June really) I choose to start easy and work my way up. So, this morning, as the alarm clock went off at 5:45am, Mike and I got up and headed to the Y. I was dreading it. I love my sleep. Sleep and I get along very well, and I don’t like it when someone / something takes me away from my sleep. (Hence part of the reason Mike and I have no children right now!)

After we got to the Y, I hopped on the elliptical and set the timer for 30 minutes thinking that would be easy and time would go by fast. Was I ever wrong!!!! First mistake on my part: Not stretching beforehand. Second mistake: forgetting my iPod. Third mistake: getting on an elliptical where the TV didn’t work. Fourth mistake: not using my asthma inhaler before the work out.

The first 3 minutes went by pretty easy. My brain was tricking me by thinking “heck – I can handle this. I could do this for an hour easy!” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Minute 4 rolled around and I was out of breath, sweating, and had to stop and rest. Yes – 4 minutes in I had to stop and rest. HOW PATHETIC!!!

At that point, I changed the workout setting from cardio to fat burning. That helped. I slowed down my pace and kept telling myself “You can do it, you can do it…” I felt like the Little Engine that Could.

As 20 minutes rolled around, I started watching Mike on the treadmill. I figured that if he could run on the treadmill with his bad knees, than I could do the elliptical no problem. Watching Mike was what I should have been doing from minute #1. (Instead, I was trying to read the captions on the TV since I forgot my iPod and headphones…) Apparently I was too busy watching my husband and actually ended up going 35 minutes instead of 30.

Wow, I did it. I did my first 30 minutes on the elliptical. I can do it.

In addition to starting the “prescribed” workout, Mike and I also made the decision to join Weight Watchers. Now before you start with the “you don’t need to lose weight” routine, just wait a sec. I honestly didn’t think that either. I just thought I needed to get in shape.

Well, last night as Mike and I were cleaning out our front closet, I pulled out my old iBook and started browsing through some of the pictures. (Keep in mind that this was the laptop I used in college.) I opened up one of the folders and found a picture of myself in a bikini that was taken right before I went to Florida with my friend Kellie and her boyfriend at the time. OMG! I stared at that picture and said to myself “I used to look like that???” That was all the motivation I needed.