Article Contributed on: 3/31/2007 7:48:53 AM
I am an early morning person. When I say early I mean that I'm at the Rec Center at 5:30 a.m., most Mondays through Fridays.
Nothing like starting your day with exercise. I'm not alone. We have a group of about a dozen of early morning "regulars." Some of the regulars are really into their work-outs. They pump iron, run on the treadmill and, yes, sweat!
Then we have a few of us who are there simply to keep our bodies moving. We get on the treadmill and walk. We take to the track and walk. We get on the bicycles and pedal as if we were riding through town on a sunny afternoon. Some of us even hit the machines, doing rep after rep, buiding muscles we didn't even know existed in our bodies.
I've been doing this for over a year now and I'm finally getting it. I have to increase my intensity and change my workouts if I want to see results. Can you believe it took me a whole year to get it? Still, I have many more pounds to lose but I am starting to see results.....slowly!
Gathering with friends at the Rec Center is more than just working out. It's our morning social club.
We discuss news, weather, travel, movies, restaurants, and family life. There we are, three friends, sitting on exercise bikes pedalling away and discussing which restaurant we ate at the night before. Then there are times when we are walking on the treadmill, talking about where we should go to Happy Hour that night. Talking about Happy Hour is zero calories, you know.
I try to think of this early morning workout as earning calories for the rest of the day.
For every half-hour on the treadmill I can actually burn enough calories for a sip of a margarita. Another half-hour on the treadmill gets me a taste of an appetizer. Adding another half-hour on the exercise bike might even earn me another sip of a margarita.
Then again, all of this exercise combined may earn me a true weight loss if I skip the margarita, the appetizer, and just go to Happy Hour with my friends and enjoy the friendship time. Perhaps a light beer?