Thursday, March 11, 2004

A valid excuse this time

I actually wanted to exercise yesterday. It's easy when I want to, since I still live w/the parents and they have an old, yet working treadmill that doubles as a clothes rack. I would probably workout more often if I could just get myself through those first few steps of finding the time, putting on clothing I can sweat in, and stepping onto the treadmill. I actually love the feeling I get from walking on it, it feels good, yet I hardly ever do it because I tell myself that I just don't have the time.

So yesterday I found the time, changed into my "cool" exercise clothes (thank you Wal-Mart) and tennis shoes, put my hair back and pumped myself up for some endorphin producing fun. I even put in a DVD, "Coupling" (one of my favorite brit-coms that didn't work over here b/c they just took the script and gave it to american actors which just doesn't work), stretched, and started up the treadmill. I almost began to sweat and was getting up to a good pace, when the dayum thing just stopped. It was on, plugged in, I was walking on it, and it just stopped. After tripping over my own feet and pulling some muscle in my leg, I stepped off of the treadmill, and it started up again. So I got back on... a minute later it stopped. Tried again, it stopped again.

Is the treadmill trying to tell me something now? I'm too heavy to exercise on it? I'm not crazy about it rocking and bouncing with me from side to side b/c of my weight, but since I'm in the privacy of my own home, I'll put up with it. Well it won't put up with me anymore. It might have to do with the tread needing tightening, and I hope that's the case, because that will probably be the end all to my exercise regime.

I can't go to a gym or health club and exercise, it's full of skinny people, getting skinnier and healthier, looking good when they're sweaty and wearing barely anything... then there's me in my ragged t-shirt, unmatching sweatpants, huffing and puffing away at 2.5 miles per hour on the treadmill with my face so red people ask me if I should sit down. That's not fun, the skinny people take all the endorphins away. I once tried going to a fitness club for women only, but it was full of skinnies too. Where's the fat fitness club? The huffy puffy fluffy gym? Maybe I need to start one, that has a minimum weight requirement.

There's also the outside, the trails around the lakes at LSU where the serial killer used to find victims, but I'm not sure if many know about Louisiana heat. It is year round. We have two seasons, Christmas and Summer. Not only is it hot, but it's humid, muggy, can't even expand your lungs steamy hot. Not great for exercise, but the few times that it is comfortable, we still have tens of thousands of mosquitoes, some carrying West Nile, others seeming to love the smell and taste of OFF! bug spray. We had a day that was in the 50's last week, and I still got bitten on my legs from the mosquitoes, just from walking the dogs outside.

So, what's a fat girl to do? There are skinnies everywhere, the treadmill won't let me walk, and my bicycle laughs at me when I try to remove the spiderwebs from its wheels. I need exercise.