The World According to Mommy

With our new jogging stroller from Grandpa, Nate and I decided to turn our morning walk into a walk/jog. I felt very confident in this idea, for as you see, earlier this week I missed my usual exercise class at the gym, so I decided to head over to the treadmills instead.

Ahhh, the treadmills. The good ole' treadmill has never been my friend. I have, my whole life, always been terribly out of shape, thus, I have never been able to run for longer than 2 or 3 minutes without having to stop, gasping for air. But this time, I ran one whole mile....without stopping! Granted, it took me 11 minutes to do it, but still! I was so proud of myself. As the minutes kept ticking by I was just in shock that my legs were still moving. I was running!

So thanks to this one episode of running one mile, I decided it was time to take the show on the road. Literally. So Nate and I headed out this morning, and as I walked to the end of our street and made the turn onto Avery Ranch Blvd. to begin my run, I knew things were going to be different.

Maybe it was being in an air conditioned gym, with music and TV to distract me from the pain that was quickly overtaking my body, but running in the gym was nothing compared to what I endured this morning. Maybe it was just being outside, or maybe it was pushing 30+ pounds of baby and stroller, but I don't think I made it 1/4 of a mile before I had to stop. And not only did I have to stop running, I had to completely stop. I blamed it on needing to check on Nate, but really, I just needed to not move for a few seconds so I could catch my breath. It was bad. But I walked for a bit, then I jogged for just a tiny bit, then I walked again. I did this the whole two miles.

One of the fitness instructors at the gym always says that it's OK to stop and take a break from whatever exercise we're doing as long as you come back in and finish. She says that if you stop, and then don't start back up, you have quit, not taken a break. So on my jog this morning, I took a few breaks, but I didn't quit.

I really want to be one of those hot, skinny moms that goes jogging with their babies down Avery Ranch Blvd. But in order to get there I'm afraid there will have to be a lot more mornings like today.