Finding Time To Exercise

Walking at 5:45 am? Are you crazy?

If someone told me last year that I would be one of thoooose people, the kind that go walking on purpose, with seemlingly no good reason, I’d have laughed in their face. As a kid you never think finding time to exercise will be on your to do list. I’d see my mom and grandma go walking and think, “ How pointless? They could just sit and talk. Or better yet watch TV and eat snacks.”

But life changes and so must we. The funniest answer I have for doing all this is one I give when people ask me…. How in the world do you get your husband to do it with you?

Well it was actually his idea. He latched onto this philosophy that if you immediately get up and get moving before you can talk yourself out of it then it’s too late to argue. Once you’re up and going you’re truly alive because life is motion. Getting up and moving is a healthy practice both mentally and physically and supposedly your whole day is better. I don’t know about that, that’s probably more dependent on the mood of my kids that day.

While I can’t say it makes the whole day better, IT IS my favorite part of the day. For us it’s the one time we can talk without little people interrupting. No snack requests, no potty breaks, and no screams from outside the room about who knows what.

It’s a time of day when Los Angeles isn’t angry, it’s calm. You can smell the flowers as the sun rises. The world is peacefully waking up and I feel like I’m ahead of the game. It’s crazy but instead of feeling tired I feel energized. And for the rest of the day it sticks with me as the best part of my day.

It’s not just walking though. It’s connecting with my spouse. We share reflections, dreams about the future, frustrations about the kids and stresses about money and time. Some days he’s the talker and other days I make him my sounding board. For 20-30 minutes we enjoy catching up or getting ahead, however the mood hits us.

And then, at the end of the day, which with walking means 10 pm latest, I’m wiped out. But strangely, I can’t wait for my next 5:45 am walking session with my honey where we can discuss all of the life we’re living in between.