I don’t know about you, but I am a bit commitment phobic – especially when it means announcing my commitment to people who live outside my body (that’s you and everyone else in the world!).

Why? Because I am leery of failing, falling short of my intended goal. And if I am gonna fail (which I do regularly, sorry to say), I’d rather do it privately. If nobody else knows what I attempted, then no one is the wiser that I tried (again) and fell short (again). I hate the cycle, but there it is.

So I am nervously announcing to all of you that I have gone back to exercise. Finally. At last. Whew.

There isn’t a single thing that isn’t improved by exercise: memory, focus, heart, lungs, muscle tone, longevity….I could go on and on. But for the last 6-7 years I have KNOWN the benefits but haven’t EXPERIENCED the benefits. Lots of excuses: I’ll do it next week. No time. No place to go. The basement/exercise room is under construction. I don’t have the right shoes. No time. I need different shorts. I need a treadmill or elliptical or weights or video. No time.

And gradually, I have chipped away at the excuses. I have a treadmill. I even have an elliptical. And weights. And videos. But I still had trouble getting myself IN THERE to work out.

FInally (as in last October) something snapped and I called a low profile gym that about 10 minutes from my house. I had been pointed toward a personal trainer named Patrick who was supposed to be terrific. He invited me to come in that day. So I did. And I signed up. And I started going to the gym.

Did you hear that? I STARTED GOING TO THE GYM!!!

Mostly because Patrick was waiting for me and expected me to show up (gotta love that accountability!). But heck, I don’t care what got me there. I was going!

And I am still going. Well, not since I got to the beach three weeks ago. I did bring some weights and an intention to join the local gym on a week by week basis (I didn’t). I did promise to text Patrick to let him know what was going on with my workouts (not yet though). But yesterday, I got up, put on a video and WORKED OUT!

My whole day was better. I was more energetic, more optimistic and more eager to WRITE.

So, there is it. My intentions are exposed. I want to get back into shape…never the shape I was before the docs stole my estrogen patches. But at least in as good a shape as possible for an almost 59-year-old. (OMG that sounds so OLD…ick).

Off to the exercise room…I am going to burn those little fat cells to death!