Over the years I have come to realize that it can be so easy to make excuses for not doing what has been working for me as far as my health and fitness is concerned.  If I find myself eating unhealthy snacks and meals, I can tell myself that I am too busy to make something healthy or that I don’t have the right food in the house.  If I am eating at a restaurant or a friend’s house, I can excuse my bad choices because they don’t have any healthy alternatives or that I don’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings by not eating the food she has prepared.  Also, at this time of year the fruit and vegetable choices are just not as plentiful as they are in the summer…one more excuse for eating crap (excuse my French).

            One of the things I have come to realize, however, is that all these excuses are just that: excuses.  It really all comes down to forethought and planning.  I know that if I take the time on the weekend to shop and plan meals, I am more likely to make better choices all week long.  If I know I am going to have to eat out at a restaurant, I can look at their menu online and make my choices before I even leave the house.  Or if their menu is not readily available, I can eat small meals the rest of the day so I can go a little over on my restaurant meal if I need to.  If I am invited to a friend’s house to eat, I can plan to bring a healthy alternative for myself and just take small portions of what they are serving so I am still being polite to the hostess.

            In much the same way I make excuses for food choices, in the past I was pretty adept at thinking up reasons why I couldn’t exercise.  It is especially easy to put off exercising when the weather cools down and the lure of a warm, cozy bed makes it difficult to pull my feet out from under the covers and onto the cold, hard ground for my morning run or bike ride. 

           This week it was especially difficult because we spent three days in snowy Mammoth.   Last summer I went on vacation to Monterey and was able, for the first time in my life, to enjoy my time away without gaining weight (see My Flabulous Vacation blog 7/16/2011).  This was made easy by the beautiful weather that enticed me to come out and play in it…not so with the snowy, some-what icy conditions in the mountains.  I was tempted to sit inside the cabin sipping coffee and playing games like Farkle and Phase Ten with my daughter, Siobhan, or snuggling under quilts with my son, Eoin. 

           Now I have shared that I LOVE running in the snow.  It is actually one of my favorite environments to run in.  I do, however, need to stay safe.  The snow running I did last Christmas was on a maintained path, so I could be certain that there wasn’t a log or loose rock underfoot.  This was not the case around Convict Lake, so running was out.  Luckily, I did have a plan in mind.  First, Sean and I decided to hit a 6 AM Crossfit class before tackling the drive to Mammoth.  We had to make sure we were completely packed the night before, but it was worth it knowing that our exercise was completed for the day.

           In addition, I was planning to go cross-country skiing or snowshoeing so that we could enjoy being outdoors in the winter landscape while still getting our much-needed exercise.  We bundled up in warm clothes, packed the kids in the car with activities they could do in the lodge while they waited for us, and we headed up to Tamarack to embark on our new snow activities.  When we arrived, we realized despite our best-laid plans, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing were not meant to be.  We had driven all the way up the mountain only to find out that there was enough snow to cover the ground, but not enough for us to be able to try these new activities. By the time we got back to the cabin, frustrated and tired, it would have been easy to jump into our warm bed for a nap, but I knew that in order to have energy for the rest of the day we needed to get out and move. 

           In lieu of skiing or snowshoeing, we decided to hike around the perimeter of Convict Lake. It was difficult to see the path clearly through the snow, but we decided to keep going until we felt it was no longer safe. I wish I could describe to you how amazing it feels to exercise in the snow.  I am afraid words just won’t do it justice, but I will try.  First, the air is crisp and clean.  As we moved farther and faster, the air we breathed in was just different than what we get in the city—colder and fresher.  The feel of the snow under our feet was soft and giving, a little like sand only more cushioned.  The only sound we could hear was the movement of the water, the wind in the trees, and our shoes crunching in the snow.  And the view was amazing—majestic mountains above, snowed covered banks around the lake, and sparkling lake water below.  It is almost hard to say this was exercise when we enjoyed ourselves so much.

          When we got halfway around the lake we finally ran into our first fellow hikers coming from the other direction.  This couple tried to dissuade us from going further, suggesting that the icy conditions ahead made the trail too dangerous to do the full loop around the lake, especially where there were steep drop offs to the lake below, which forced them to turn back.  But we had come this far so we decided to keep going…at least until we truly felt it was too dangerous to press forward.  There were some places where the sparse and icy path tested our hiking skills (and our courage), but for the most part it was so worth the effort and these challenge spots just increased the quality of the workout.  An hour and a half later, we finally got back to where we had started.  We were so happy that we had decided against the nap in the first place or to turn back when the trail got sketchy because, in the end, we felt energized from the hike and the adventure.

So whether you live where it snows, rains, or stays dry most of the winter, get out there and exercise.  If you can convince yourself to roll out of your cozy bed even on the roughest weather days, you will know you have finally made it a part of your new, healthy routine.  Don’t let the winter blahs, inclement weather, or challenging conditions dissuade you from continuing on your road to flabulous—make it fun, make it a regular part of your day, and when swim suit season comes around again, you will be glad you did.

        Can I share one piece of advice with you…don’t dye your own hair.  I have come to realize that there are many ways to save money, but actually coloring your own hair may not be the best luxury to cut back on.  Last weekend, in an attempt to do my share with tightening our belts, I bought a box of auburn hair dye.  In my head I figured that I spend over $100 getting my hair dyed and cut professionally…I would be saving about $80 by doing it myself.  One bright, cranberry-red head and about a hundred tears later I have come to the conclusion that no amount of money is worth ever having to go out in public with hair that looks like a fall tree. I had to call my hairdresser in shame and ask her for a quick-fix solution until I could actually get an appointment.  I had to re-dye my hair with a green-based color to counteract the obvious excess of red.  While it has improved, I have been avoiding mirrors all week, so I can live in my fantasy world where my hair is its normal shiny, brown color.

         Amazingly, I was at a party on Wednesday where several people told me how much they liked my new color.  Assuming they were only saying this to be nice, my response to them was, “Well you should have seen it before I applied the second color.  I looked like my head was on fire, and now I just look like a fall nightmare.” My good friend Alicia must have heard this response one too many times because at one point I heard her yell across the room, “Just say thank you!  When someone says something nice to you…JUST say thank you!”

         This got me thinking about the fact that I have a really hard time when people say nice things about me…and I bet I am not alone in this.  Why do we feel that when people pay us a compliment, we need to minimize that compliment by pointing out the negative?  When people compliment me on my weight loss, my usual response is to tell them that I still have 25 pounds left to lose.  Why must I point that out instead of focusing on the fact that I have lost and kept off over 60 pounds? If someone tells me how skinny I am looking, I will often attribute it to the clothes I am wearing—“This outfit just makes me look thin.”  Why can’t I just celebrate the new size I am wearing?

         While I may never know the reasoning behind why I cannot seem to just accept compliments, I do think that what Alicia said to me was good advice.  I need to remember to JUST say thank you.  When people tell me they like my new hair color, I need to say, “Thanks. I thought I would brighten it up for the fall.”  When someone congratulates me on the weight I have taken off, I should tell them, “Thanks, I have really been working hard to get it off.”  And when someone tells me I am looking thin, I need to own the fact that the clothes only make me look good because I work out everyday and have trimmed up many of my flabby spots.

         So as we prepare for Thanksgiving, let’s remember to be thankful for our friends and family that support us and make us feel special.  And when they tell us that we look wonderful or that they are proud of all our hard work, let’s own that and JUST SAY THANK YOU!

         With some of the obstacle course runs I have been doing lately, it has become apparent that despite the fact that I am in much better shape than I have been in years, I still have a LONG way to go.  I have trained myself to be able to run a half-marathon without collapsing before I finish, I have shed more than sixty pounds, and I truly feel like a new person.  I have shared in the past that good is the enemy of great, so while I must give myself credit for making progress, I don’t want to get so satisfied with where I am that I don’t push myself to lose the last twenty-five pounds nor challenge myself to get even stronger with my cardiovascular and muscle fitness.

            As I was running past our local middle school this morning, my thoughts drifted back to my own experiences in eighth grade.  I was actually a perfect weight for a teenage girl, and I was physically fit as well.  I played volleyball and tennis, I swam, and while I was not a stellar athlete, I could play pretty much any sport I put my mind to trying.  So it was funny that the one memory that came to my mind this morning was the week we did physical fitness testing.  I did well on the running, I passed all the flexibility tests, but when it came to anything having to do with upper body strength, I failed miserably.  I still remember the humiliation of trying to do even one pull-up and just hanging there without the ability to move myself up even one centimeter.  I think my PE teacher thought I wasn’t even trying, but I was I actually pulling as hard as I could without any visible movement.  Humiliation.

            Fast forward thirty years and the same humiliating feeling came over me as I approached the monkey bar obstacle at the Survivor Mud Run.  I took one look at it and just jumped in the mud without even trying. I was sure I couldn’t do it, and therefore by not at least attempting it, I had again failed.

            So you may be asking yourself, "What does any of this have to do with bartering?" Well, my answer would be, "It has everything to do with why I am even blogging about bartering this week." I am at the point where I need some professional help but without a professional budget at my fingertips.  I was stuck with being my own professional trainer, and while I am not a skilled at this, I am good at one thing...teaching.  And as luck would have it I was tutoring a student whose parents own a local cross training facility.  His father suggested we trade training for tutoring, and I knew I had finally found the solution to my fitness needs.

             Now, because I have promised to always be honest and share the good, the bad, and the ugly with you, I will not lie and tell you my evaluation at the fitness center was pretty.  In fact, if he didn’t know I was a runner, he might have thought I was a bit sedentary.  And once again, when we got to the tests of upper body strength, I was embarrassingly weak.  In fact even with heavy-duty elastic bands supporting me, I could hardly do any pull-ups, and the dips (an exercise on parallel bars where the body is lowered by bending the elbows and then is raised by straightening the arms) were impossible.  I have a long way to go, but now I have hope that I can actually improve--all because of this bartering opportunity.  I could not afford personal training, but I can easily teach in exchange for the training.

            Think about what you do well and how you can trade that for what you need. I know a lot of people have the excuse that they can’t work out because there is no one to watch their kids.  How about trading babysitting with a trusted friend who may also need to get to the gym?  You take turns watching the kids, and you both benefit from the extra time to focus on your health.  Or if you are good at scrapbooking or some other handy craft, maybe you could trade lessons with someone who knows how to make healthy meals.  It may take some creative thinking where bartering is concerned, but with these tough financial times, I think you will be pleasantly surprised what people will be willing to trade for.  I never thought I’d ever be able to afford a trainer, but with bartering, it became possible.  And maybe, just maybe I will finally be able to put to rest those embarrassing middle school memories by making it across the monkey bars in an upcoming mud run.

           Let’s face it…most people do not wake up and say, “Yes!  I get to exercise today.”  For most of us fitting our exercise in can be nearly impossible, and putting it at the top of our priority list might not just be a matter of not being able to.  It may be a matter of not wanting to.  I have to say I have become one of those people that actually enjoys getting my exercise in, and on those days that I don’t, I just don’t feel the same.  I feel tired, I don’t have energy, and I actually get a little cranky (my husband and kids can attest to this).  I think the secret to enjoying working out is mixing it up a little.  It is easy to get stuck in an exercise rut that can become a little boring.  This boredom can lead you to deciding it is better to roll over and ignore your alarm when it goes off in the morning, rather than getting up and getting your movement in for the day. 

            Many of you that have been following along with my blog for the last year know that running is my main activity, but I have also added in biking, swimming, and even had an amazing morning of doing Zumba with my friend Liz.  Another thing I have added lately to mix things up is racing that includes obstacles, mud, and other challenges that require muscles beyond just the ones in my legs.  Today I had the amazing opportunity to do the Ridiculous Obstacle Course (ROC) Race in Pomona with my friends Emily and Erin.  Now while this race still required us to run a 5K (3.1 mile) distance, there were also seventeen obstacles along the way to keep us on our toes.  For the first time, 3 miles flew by and I could hardly believe it when I crossed the finish line.  It was so much fun I didn’t once stop to think I needed to walk, that I was tired, or that I couldn’t do it.  Making it fun was the key to making my run go by in a flash.

            The fun began even before the race started.  There was a great party atmosphere: loud music, crazy dancing, and loads of people dressed in the most ridiculous costumes you can imagine.  I think my favorites were the guys dressed as babies, including bonnets, pacifiers, and extra large Depends diapers—some people have no shame.  I guess I can’t really knock someone else’s costume when we were dressed in neon from head to toe. 

            Another exciting thing about this day was that it was Erin’s first official racing event.  I had somehow talked her into joining us at this crazy race, and despite being in bed sick the night before, she still braved the freezing morning air to participate.  It is always exciting to watch someone do something they never thought they were capable of doing.

            As we lined up at the starting line surrounded by Elvis, a couple gorillas, even a side of bacon and his partner dressed up as sunny side up eggs, we couldn’t wait to tackle all seventeen crazy obstacles.  When we rounded the first corner, we entered a little Mexican village where we were chased by people wielding padded sparring sticks.  Just when I was feeling proud of myself for avoiding getting knocked over by the sticks, I turned the corner only to be faced with my weakness… K-rail hurdles. As I slowly and awkwardly crawled over each barrier, I turned to my left and noticed Erin easily stepping over each one of them—curse her and her super long legs. 

          Luckily, the next couple obstacle did not require arm strength nor long legs.  We crawled up two long metal tunnels filled with mud and snow, and then down steep, muddy hills to the bottom.  We then headed to the dark stables where, as we ran through the middle, zombies popped out from every corner.  It may not sound scary, but just when you thought you had made it through, someone would sneak up on you to make you wish you had been wearing your own pair of Depends.

          After surviving zombies, we had to climb muddy walls to jump over a wooden fence and then…monkey bars.  At the Survivor Mud Run, I didn’t even attempt these.  I just jumped right into the mud knowing that I have never been able to do these, not even as a kid.  Today, I at least tried a few bars before falling into the water below.  It wasn’t pretty, but at least I attempted this one. 

          Our next few tasks had us running up and down cement steps ala Rocky and tackling switchbacks through draught tolerant landscape environments all while avoiding being squirted by fire hoses and paint-filled water blasters.  Now doesn’t this sound like more fun than running down the streets of Vegas, Long Beach, or Temecula?  We also had to dodge inflatable boulders, climb through mountains of tires, slide across and down huge slides, all while running up and down hills between the obstacles.  The final obstacles had us swim through icy water and climb up and down huge mountains of slippery mud before finally seeing the finish line in the distance.  As I ran toward the rope bridges, I could see Emily cheering me on from the sidelines.  While I managed to get across the rope bridge without falling into the muddy water below, I was not so lucky on the final obstacle, the rope swing.  I took a running jump and still managed to only go a few feet before falling short and ending up in the mud. 

          Once I crossed the finish line, I ran back to get Erin because I wanted to be with her when she crossed her first finish line.  I met her at the muddy mountains and watched her as she moved easily across the rope bridges and gracefully swung across on the rope landing on the other side without taking a dip in the mud.  While she says that running is not her strength, she was definitely good at the obstacle part of this race.  As we reached the finish line, it was exciting to see Erin complete her race with a good finish time all while still recovering from her illness of the day before.

          It is hard to convey on paper how much we really enjoyed our race today. From the beginning to the end, it really did not feel like working out. Now you may not think that this kind of race sounds like fun, but finding that exercise that you do enjoy is key to making it seem like less of a chore.  Find your exercise, find friends who you enjoy exercising with, and you will find that you might actually enjoy working out, too.