Skinny Fat Girl

As one who abhors exercise, a conclusion that I’ve recently reached pains me greatly. However, there is no way around it: it’s time to get my ass back to the gym. (To clarify: “back to” is rather generous. “To” would be more like it.)

The frustrating thing is, I used to work out all the time. I ran regularly and participated in 10K and 10-mile races, I got my money’s worth from my gym membership, and I even took the occasional pilates and yoga classes. Overall, I felt that I was strong and fit — sure, I wanted to drop a few pounds, but by no means did I need to.

As summarized in “Food for Thought“, I gained a bunch of weight over the course of a few years, then lost it once I made the switch to a vegan diet. Of course, here is the irony: I have never been less in shape than I am now, even though I weigh the same as I did in 9th grade. This is the joke about losing weight through diet alone: it doesn’t mean you will look or feel any better. I may be 20 pounds lighter than I was a few years ago, but in some ways, I think I looked better back then when I had muscle tone, as opposed to flabby parts I’m rocking now.

(Please, take a moment now to recover from your image of my beauty.)

I know this is the oldest excuse in the book, but somewhere along the way, life just became too busy. As you know from “Waking Up is Hard to Do“, I am NOT a morning person, which rules out a.m. workouts. And given my busy professional life, hitting the gym after work would result dinner no earlier than 9 p.m., and even less time to spend with my husband.

So what’s a girl to do? Nancy Hellmich of USA Today summed up the dilemma pretty succinctly in her article last week: “Time to exercise, eat well and ditch the excuse of ‘no time’“. At this point, I figure I have the eating thing as good as I’m ever going to get it … so that just leaves the “exercise” and “ditching the excuse of no time”.

Hmmmm. Who needs sleep, right?

I would love to hear your advice / recommendations on how to get motivated and moving again – please share in the “comments” section!