fitness for fun?

Lately, I’ve been considering the role I want fitness to have in my life.

First I should tell you that training for a half marathon takes a lot of time, but I love how I feel and I’ve never been happier with my body. I think everyone who is unhappy with their fitness level should attempt it and you’ll be amazed at what your body can learn in a few weeks.

One night I came home from work and my body was just exhausted. I have a pretty crazy schedule, so that’s not too uncommon, but this made me think about my priorities a little differently.

I have about a million and a half hobbies/ commitments. violin, viola, piano, reading, sewing, scrapbooking, knitting, etc. and now running and yoga (the yoga started happening when I needed the stretching for running and some breathing for my workload). I really need to determine what is my priority out of all of this.

I’ve decided I want fitness to be for my health, and not a hobby. Meaning, I know I need to run/ stretch/ workout everyday to combat the effects of a desk job, but I don’t want it to take up all my free time. I never want to be the person who spends 2 hours after work at the gym, because there are other things in my life that I enjoy more.

I think a big part of this is just choosing to go to the gym before work instead of after. In the morning, your workout just becomes part of the daily routine… but any later and you’re not home in time for dinner (not to mention making dinner), and you wasting valuable time for relationships. *also, I’m a morning person

Obviously, training is a specific situation that I probably won’t be in again for a while. And I really do love the results – every time I return from a run, I’m so proud of my body for being alive and strong. I had never been able to run more than 2 miles before I started this adventure.

But I think once this is over, I will calm down a little. I think I’ll run 4 miles on the days I do run, and a long-ish run on the weekend. I’ll do more exercises that focus on toning (beach body season is around the corner). I’ll probably do more yoga, because I need to learn to focus (I’ll write another post on my view of yoga sometime).

Staying fit is a necessity considering my intense love for cupcakes and cookies, but other things are more important to me.

*my husband* – who has been so supportive even though he doesn’t understand the appeal of sweating and feeling like death.
*reading* – learning, writing.
*music* – my first love
*sewing* – crafting & creating things in general. so much fun.

I think you will never completely love your body until you test it and see how much you’re capable of (the best part of my training), but this will never be how I define myself. Taking care of my body is essential and fun, but I kind of can’t wait to get back to my other activities.

My race is on April 27th!!!!!!!!!!!!!