Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Body Moving

Did you see this? (I did via Jezebel.)

It’s a claim that exercise doesn't lead to weight loss because it makes you hungrier. Huh. On the one hand, I enjoy any public huzzah stressing that weight is fairly pre-determined. On the other hand, as much as I hate exercise—and I do, with the sweating and the red-facedness and the boob-napping bra—I don’t care if weight loss is a benefit. It’s good for the mood and good for the heart.

I’m still doing my walk that I started under Dr. Weil’s tutelage. I say “still” as if there weren’t a three-season gap. Anyway, I’m back on it and am feeling committed enough that we bought a treadmill. Because, truly, there’s about a two-degree span of temperatures I consider appropriate for outdoor exercise.

Also because, I walk with the iPod and it was becoming increasingly obvious that, if I wanted to go about my walk the way I wanted to (rocking and rolling and whatnot), I should steer clear of other people. I don’t have the breath, once I really get going, to sing along with all the lines, so I’d be walking past some students at the bus stop, muttering random lines from songs. Huff, huff, gooood, huff huff, cold and wet on the grass to me, huff huff, fucking people over.

I shouldn’t care about how I come across while exercising, but even I could see I was about one fist shake and two bad teeth away from being a person to whom one gives a wide berth.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I'm the same way about outside exercise. It's always too damn hot. Or cold. I've been going to this running class and let me tell you I do a lot of bitching. I sometimes preface it with "I know I sound like a baby..." and nobody argues with me.

The only thing that really keeps me going on these runs is thinking I might see a crime or a body in the woods or something and get to be a crime witness.

Anonymous said...

I thought I was the only one who said "rocking and rolling and whatnot", as if it were perfectly normal for a middle aged mother of three to work quotes from Grease into my day. So I'm normal. Or we are abnormal together. Whichever.

Bette said...

My nerd admission? I listen to saved up "This American Life" episodes while walking a little too stridently. So I looked really scary crazy, nodding and guffawing and all and sometimes repeating a phrase as I trot along. No one ever asks me for the time. Then again, I don't wear a watch.

Anonymous said...

I spend my entire workout (I'm a gym person) trying my best not to burst into song. Sometimes I fail and it embarrasses the hell out of me but I keep going and pretend it didn't happen.

Anonymous said...

Just had to clarify: By "gym person" I do not mean someone who walks around in spandex and a sports bra. I'm about 40 pounds overweight and wear big T-shirts. I just prefer the gym to the outdoors.