"Smashing it"

So, this morning, I ignored the stares of the cool kids (although if I drop the paranoia for a second, they probably didn't give  me a second look) and hot footed it to the local gym.

Oh, if only I really had hot footed it.  Instead I hot-automobiled it.  Right into a ute's back end which was hanging soooo far out of the car park that it was practically pleading with me to smash into it.

I'm the daughter of social workers.  I'm very obliging.

Thankfully the only thing hurt in the incident was my bank balance (I could practically feel the insurance excess draining out of my account as I walked around the back of my car to check out the damage).

I got back into the car and parked it perfectly into the very carpark that I was trying to avoid when I completed the fancy manoeuvre into the ute, and did what is my usual response to any kind of stress: I cried (but this time, sans the chocolate fix). Not for too long.  The reality of having a 3.5 year old and 7 month old at home has quite the effect on what I previously thought were involuntary teary episodes; I'm the queen of the high quality but superfast cry.  Kind of like a cat nap: minimum time, maximum benefit.

Quite unlike exercise, however.  No matter how fast I run, 5 or 10 minutes is never going to cut it.

Which is why I got out of the car, walked up the stairs, into the gym and straight onto a torture machine.

And there (and on a second likewise sadistic contraption), I smashed it for the second time today, and all before 7am!

And I finally did the time trial (I told you I wasn't one of those organised people): 1 kilometre in 7.5 minutes. There was no way I could have done that 10 days ago.  I was a strictly 30-second-jog person way back then.

Wow, aren't online calculators useful.  That would be 8 kilometres an hour.  Big catch, I appreciate: there is no way that I could have kept that up for an hour.  But let's not dwell on the fine print.  I'm definitely getting fitter.

What a crazy concept this is that these health and fitness people share: that if you eat better and exercise more, you will get fitter.  And you'll lose weight!  Remarkable.

That's the thing that has struck me this last week.  I've obviously not been engaged with myself or with reality: I've been in a chocolate-and-general-carby-crap coma.  Well, I've snapped out, and things are much clearer now, thank you (even if my back windscreen wasn't!)