Valentine's Day, My Ass!

Yeah, last Monday was Valentine's Day and I got to eat the Holy Grail of candy, See's bridge mix. Plus, I got a charm for my bracelet, some flowers, and a bunch of cards.And we went out to dinner. Cool, yes. Fun, certainly, but what really makes my toes curl is that on Monday pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training! The rest of the team had to get there by Friday. Ahhhh - baseball season is almost back. All's right with my world.

I spent much of last fall on my butt in front of the TV watching games and wishing I was at them. It was easy to let my workouts lapse when the weather got rainy and it was too cold to walk or ride my bike outside. Back to the gym? I couldn't go there -my sweatpants only go down to my knees - I'd have to shave my legs. Plus the little fob thingy that lets me enter the gym is on my keys and I couldn't find them. I can always find a reason not to do something when I don't want to do it. Then my best buddy told me something that along with "Fuck it - its dinner" has become a new mantra for me.

I was bitching about how I needed to go back to the gym but I really didn't want to. Well, I suppose I was more whining actually, because she cut me off in a no nonsense voice (she's a high school teacher - she has a great no nonsense voice) "You don't have to want to do it" she said "You just have to do it". So I did. Every weekday for the past six weeks, I've spent an hour and a half in my little gym, lifting, pushing, pulling, sweating, treadmilling and generally getting in shape.

I haven't lost a single ounce of the five pounds I put on since Halloween, but I'm developing some pretty awesome muscles. I know that under my belly flab is a six pack just waiting to come out and say "Give me a beer and a hot dog - its baseball season!"

Because I love to buy myself stuff and because I don't trust myself to keep going to the gym, I decided to reward myself for sticking to my workouts. Every other Friday, which just happens to coincide with the hub's payday, if I've had perfect attendance at the gym, I buy myself a present. I now have a new pair of shoes, a purse in transit and a pretty set of sheets I've been eyeing. That's six weeks of exercise and some cool swag!

My shoes are the best. I remembered last year when Brian Wilson got fined for pitching in a pair of solid orange Nikes. He said he got fined for having "too much awesome" on his feet. With this in mind, I went to Converse.com and designed myself a pair of the coolest orange, black, cream and houndstooth check shoes ever. I'm wearing them now. My feet are bathed in awesome.

I'm going to keep up my new exercise/reward system. My BMI is coming down and I've got my eye on this planter stand that would look good on the patio. Plus I need some more peony plants for the front yard. When I run out of stuff to get myself I'll have to figure out some other reward - it can't be food - not even See's - that would be too much awesome.