Right before I got pregnant with Woo, I was in the best shape of my life. This also meant the lowest weight that I have been as an adult, but most importantly, I was in shape. Fit, healthy, and happy for it. It’s gone downhill since then. The children are not to blame for this, but they have been a convenient excuse.

“A week til the baby is due, then the baby is late, I’ll just lie on the couch and eat bonbons while I wait. For two weeks. And gain FIFTEEN pounds.”

“I’ll exercise when I feel better/recover”

“I’ll exercise when he sleeps through the night”

“I’m pregnant again, I’ll exercise when the baby is born”

“I’ll exercise when she sleeps through the night”

“I’ll exercise when I sleep through the night”

You get the picture. The thing is that I am out of excuses. So I recently started getting some exercise. I’ve started the 100 push-ups challenge (just finished week five!), do sit-ups every time I turn the computer on, and am making good friends with my elliptical again. In the first few weeks of this year, I think I have worked out more times than I did in the last four years. I have no idea if I have lost any weight in the last few weeks, but I feel great.

The neat thing is that the lils have noticed. I have started doing the push-ups and sit-ups with them around, and they now mimic me all the time. Today I learned that Goose can count to twenty, because she was doing a set of “sit-ups”, just like mommy. They also love to watch me on the elliptical, choose music for me to work out too, and like to get on with me. This is part of my cooldown now, although I am pretty sure that adding a 38 or 45 pound weight is not the best way to cooldown. They think it is hysterical though, and frequently ask when we can exercise again.

I have noted that I need to set a better example in one other facet of the workout regime that we have created together, and that is my music selection. It needs to be cleaned up because of the language in some stuff. Wearing my iPod doesn’t help, as apparently I like to sing out loud.