He Said, She Said: Exercising

When Peio and I started brainstorming possible topics for this now almost over series, exercising was the first to come up. It's also been the topic that has increasingly terrified me throughout the week. Because, honestly, I don't think I have that much to say.

For me exercising is one of many things that I know are good for me but never do. As a result, thinking about it mostly puts me in a situation where I have to face up to my own inadequacies and, as you all know, that's not a good place to be. I am young, educated and have all the information in the world at my google-addicted fingertips. I should be working out. It's that simple.

But I don't. My brief stints with exercise have been mostly unsuccessful. When I was 14, I started running track. I got recruited during PE class because I was fast. My real incentive for going to the stadium, however, was to keep company to a friend of mine who was boy-crazy and thought training was a great opportunity to meet boys. I didn't disagree. Not because I wanted to meet guys but because I was so unfortunate looking at the time that would do anything that would push me up a notch up the cool-scale. In my pre-teenage mind, being friends with the popular girls automatically made me somewhat more popular than I would be if left to my own devices. Needless to say, my running career was over before it even started.

Since then, I have made it to the gym several times. Tried running a couple of times. And did tae-bo with my friend Cristi twice. My last gym experience dates back to last summer. I kind of liked it at first but then realized that all the floor-exercises were giving me rug-burn. Plus, I realized that if being able to have a cigarette after I was done exercising was the only reason I went to the gym, I probably should not do it anyway. As far as tae-bo is concerned...it was fun, I must admit. It had a strange empowering effect on both Cristi and I. We figured, however, that we did not need to sweat our butts off to feel empowered and quickly went back to mixing sangria on the porch, talking about boys, and laughing till we felt our faces would fall off. Empowering indeed.

HOWEVER, I do not think that people should follow my lead on this one. To the contrary. I absolutely admire people who do work out regularly and command them on being smart enough to keep it up. If you are one of these people, more power to you!!! Actually, I would like to take advantage of having captured your attention and ask you a question. I know that there are many people out there who were not always physically active as you are now. There must be a person reading this who used to prefer the good ole couch to the gym any time but now works out regularly. If you are one of these people, would you mind sharing how you got started on the work-out thing? And also, would you share some tips on sticking to it once you start?

Even though I joked about my brief stint at the running track, I do remember how great it felt to get to a point where you actually need to work out every day.

P.S. Does wearing heels on a regular basis count as exercising? It makes my legs and my butt kind of sore, which is exactly the effect that working out had on me...back in the day. :)

P.P.S. Yes. The butt too. Pressure goes all the way up. I knew you'd ask. ;)

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Peio on excercising. In Bulgarian.