Four For Friday

Another week gone by, and I have had a major lack of time. This lack of time, and need to prioritize got me thinking about the thing I most want to change, but have the BEST excuses. You see....I am on the upswing in the weight department. I am gaining.....eeeekkkk....yes I said it. I am gaining weight. I have tried to ignore it, and pretend like it isn't happening, but my inability to have my pants buttoned and breathe at the same time is making it incredibly hard to ignore these days. WHATEVER!

In 2002, I joined Weight Watchers, and in three months I lost the 30 lbs I needed to drop. I kept it off for 2.5 years, until I got pregnant. I proceeded to gain 40lbs with that pregnancy. I was so frustrated with this gain, because I was a very responsible eater while pregnant. Luckily it turned out that a good portion of that weight was water. By the time Sugar Bear was 5 months old, I was down 50 lbs. Yes, you read that right...I was 10 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. It was easy. Well....if you count not eating tomatoes, chocolate, gassy vegetables, and ANY TRACE OF DAIRY, easy. Now when I say, "any trace of dairy", I mean it. I did not eat anything that had any form of dairy on the label. That includes most breads, crackers, and cookies. You see, my daughter had sensitivities to those foods in my breast milk, and I was set on exclusively breastfeeding. I was successful. I followed this diet until her 1st birthday, when I started introducing these foods again, and she tolerated it fine.
I continued to breastfeed her, and eat the previously forbidden foods. It took me nearly a year to gain up to my pre-pregnancy weight. Breastfeeding is a great calorie burner. Best diet I have ever done. However, as the breastfeeding slacked off in the last 7 months, so has the calorie burning, but so hasn't my caloric intake. Thus.....I am gaining. I am now 12 lbs OVER my pre-pregnancy weight, and I am NOT happy about it, but I just can't seem to give a rats a$$ to find the motivation. My life is sedentary, and I have formed some bad eating habits.
Lately as I lay on my bed, sucking my tummy in, hoping that the zipper will go up, I promise myself that I will make changes....starting tomorrow. The problem is...there is always tomorrow. ARGH! I just don't know what is wrong with me. Why can't I just jump back in to Weight Watchers and start exercising? I am just full of excuses.

For this week's edition of Four For Friday, I want to focus on my four most commonly used excuses for why I simply can exercise:

1. I am NOT a morning person. This is a FACT. I am not the type of person who can get up early to exercise. I simply do not have the will-power. I literally set my alarm for 6:45am. I push snooze twice. I drag my lazy hiney out of bed usually a few minutes after 7am. I take care of my "getting ready for work" business, and enter my daughter's room by 7:15am to wake her. I proceed to dress her, and get us out the door by 7:30am. Yes....you read it right. From bed to truck I allot less than 30 minutes. (I shower at night, in case you were worried about my hygiene.) Anyhow, the mere thought of having to get up at 6am to workout and shower makes me laugh. There is just NO way I'll do it. Not even one day.

2. I need to eat sometime. This time is usually lunch time. I can't possible take my 1/2 hour lunch break and go for a walk. I have to eat, right? Oh and if I was to really walk at a proper calorie burning rate, I would be all sweaty and stinky when I got back to work, and that is just a tad unprofessional, don't you think? It also isn't very inviting to go for a walk when about 80% of the time it is raining outside during my work year. ICK! This leaves no time to workout during my work day.

3. I spend too much time away from my daughter already. On work days, we are apart for eternity nearly 9 hours. There is just no way that I can take more time after work to walk with a co-worker, or join a gym. I need to pick up my girl, and get home. As it is, we get home between 5:30 and 6pm. Then I have to throw some sort of dinner together, and sit down to eat with my family. We have a short time between dinner and bath time to play. Often, we do go outside, but my heart rate rarely stays elevated for longer than a few minutes at a time when I am playing with her. It is important for me to let her climb and jump and play during this time, so that she is getting enough exercise, or else I would throw her in the stroller and take a walk. We have tried going for a walk together so we both get exercise, but walking her speed isn't too aerobic. So.....there is just not the time for a gym membership, walking with a co-worker after work, or sneaking in a workout before my daughters bedtime.

4. I'm sorry but I don't need an audience. Let's say, I choose to wait until after I put my daughter to bed to attempt some sort of exercise. Walking is out, as it is now dark and rainy out. This leaves doing some sort of indoor exercise. I do enjoy different types of exercise videos ranging from kickboxing to dance workouts, but the problem lies in the fact that I have a small house. The ONLY space I have available for this sort of exercise is the living room. I don't know about you, but I refuse to exercise in front of my husband, as he sits on the couch eating popcorn and oogling. What is it about a woman getting all hot and sweaty that turns a man on. I'm sorry, but I get enough action sitting around in my mis-matched Pj's eating ice cream. I don't need the extra advances I'd have to ward off if I were to exercise in front of the hubby every night. Nope....not worth it. He would have no choice but to watch, as we only have that one TV and it is located in the living room. There would be nothing else for him to do...and that right there is an unacceptable scenario. Am I wrong?

So, it should be pretty apparent that I am up against some pretty big hurdles, and I find I am too out of shape to make it over them. Instead, I just crash through them on the way to the freezer for another helping of ice cream. What the heck!