Running on all cylinders

Today I had a great day at the gym. :)

My philosophy when working out is this: Do it as long as you enjoy it.

I figure that there are so many other things that I HAVE to do in life. Working out is one of those things that I get to do in life. I get to release my stress. I get to focus on me. I get to pick the music. I get to celebrate life by being able to move. I get to show thanks for my own health by using my body in a good way. I get to show love to myself by taking care of myself. Hell, I even get to forget the combination to my lock.

So when I'm working out, I use it as a getaway - as a thing that I do, just for me. I never wear make-up at the gym...or at least not fresh make-up (if I'm working out at the end of the day I still have whatever I slapped on my face at 5:30 AM). I don't even compare myself to others. I'm not self-conscious. I'm celebrating me. And I don't really care who is watching.

I get up on the elliptical, press play on my iPod, and just run. Sure, I try to hit 100 calories burned for every 7.5 minutes. I try to keep my steps per minute up and I make it to at least 20 minutes. But if I'm feeling horrible, I stop. Because some days it feels like too much work. Some days I'm exhausted and I just don't have it in me to get past 20 minutes. On those days, I get off the machine and I go home. If I'm feeling great or like I am still stressed out, I keep going. Sometimes it's a song that keeps me going. Sometimes it's my anger towards how I've let other people treat me. And sometimes there are days like today.

Today I rocked it. I felt great. I passed the 20 minute mark easily. I sweated my little heart out because it felt great...or mostly great. I decresed my crossramp and resistance when I had a stitch in my side and then ramped it back up when it was gone.

I was on the elliptical for the full hour. THE FULL HOUR! It may not sound like a lot to you gym rats out there, but I can't remember a time when I burned 783 calories in 60 minutes.

I felt wonderful when I left. Full of life and proud of what I had just accomplished.

Tomorrow the scale will undoubtedly show a gain at my WW meeting because I chose to celebrate with friends via food pretty much all this past week. BUT I am getting healthier. Today was proof.

P.S. So here's some background about me. I used to be an engineer for GM. And I still don't know crap about cars. No really. First, it's not THAT big of a deal. The primary place I worked at GM was in their paint department - so my focus was on making sure that the machines that painted the cars were functioning - I wasn't actually in charge or even dealing with designing the vehicles. I'd like to say that I know everything about cars, but at the end of the day, the truth about my life is this: I'm still a chick that had a dad (and I didn't have an uncle or close family relatives living nearby) that didn't want to teach me jack crap about cars. Also, I was a nerd so I was busy taking classes about calculus and didn't get to know anything about cars.

So when I say I was running on all cylinders today, I am assuming that that is a good thing. OH MY GOSH I can't believe it took me that long to set up this blog title.

Alright, so if running on all cylinders is a good thing, then I am definitely using the right analogy. Or is it simile? UGH. Forget it.