Last Thursday, Caroline and I made our first trip of the summer to the neighborhood pool. I learned two things from this experience.
1. Never promise a trip to the pool before checking the weather forecast, because a 3 year old with her mind set on going to the pool isn’t going to be deterred by cloudy skies and windy, rainy weather. You know how your hand feels when you stick it in an ice chest for too long while pushing aside the Diet Pepsi to get to the good stuff? That’s how my whole body felt.
2. I wasn’t really ready to experience Swimsuit Season ’07. I needed more time, more lunges and less cellulite.
So, this morning as we were hanging out around the house, I dug through my extensive DVD collection and pulled out my lone exercise DVD entitled “Fat Burning Pilates”. I bought it almost 4 years ago in the midst of the postpartum, fat roll around the middle blues and have used it, on average, about once a year. Today, in a frenzy of needing to burn some fat, I cranked that baby up for the 4th time.
I sold Caroline on the idea of exercising with Mama, while following the lead of a host of perky women, with firm abs and pigtails in their hair, doing squats in sets of 10 with something like 40 or 300 reps a piece. Oh, they are so smug with their pigtails and elegant arm moves. I, personally, cannot be bothered with what my arms are doing when my thighs feel like someone just doused them in gasoline and lit them on fire.
We were about 5 minutes into the DVD when Caroline collapsed on the floor and said, “Mama! This is hard work. Can we stop and eat some marshmallows instead?”
I have never been more proud.