The deals I make

Yesterday, after I realized that I would not be running around like a little stress ball today I promised myself I would do a harder cardio workout this morning. It was an admittedly odd little deal to make with my own brain but I went with it. This morning I ran for about 25 minutes at 5.4 miles per hour, walked for another 10 (warm up and cool down from running) and did 25 minutes on the eliptical machine. I am fairly certain that qualifies as harder cardio than I have managed since I pulled the muscles in my leg doing jumping jacks. I also lifted some weights before I had to run out of the gym and go to the store to pick up non fat soy milk for my morning cereal. In other news, I have been rereading my old archives from more than a year ago. Personally, I date my weight loss efforts to January of 2004 but I only started blogging in May of 2004. It is a little humbling to be reminded of where I was back then and where I am right now. I worked out harder a year ago, but I ate about the same, and I was much, much unhappier than I am now. I hate to be one of those people who points at weightloss and says "see how this makes your life better" because frankly I do not believe it. It just made parts of my life different, but then again so did getting my job which I have had for almost a year, and my cat, and half a dozen other things. Still, losing weight made me more comfortable in my own skin and I am grateful for that fact. It is the little things, like not worrying about what the people at the gym think when I show up in the morning, not losing my breath when I climb up a flight of stairs, shopping in normal sized people shops, and all the myriad little things that should not be a big deal but are in my life. I figure with all of that and good shoes I am pretty much content.