What Am I Doing?

At the end of 2008 I found myself self-medicating with See's Candy and mugs of hot buttered rum. After a few weeks of butter and rum induced stupor I managed to snap out of it, eventually saying to myself something like "Huh, I wonder what that was about?" I've read enough Geneen Roth in my life to comprehend that something's wrong if I'm in binge-mode... I just wish it didn't take two weeks of binge-mode to figure it out. (Maybe it won't now, after that experience...) At any rate, I started emerging from the binge coma by walking. One of my dearest friends recommended an Omron pedometer (HJ-720), which I bought in late January. I started walking. I was probably walking around 3,000-4,000 steps a day before I bought the pedometer; I worked relatively slowly up to a 9,000 steps per day goal. Six months later, I'm walking at least 10,000 steps a day. I live in a hilly neighborhood which is great for the calves... and I love walking up to a recently developed McMansionland (vaguely mediterranean architecture, stunning views) so I can entertain myself by denigrating everything about it: the architecture, the landscaping and everyone's choice of patio accessories. It keeps me from envying their pools. Kinda.

Then, in February, I started hankering for a Wii Fit. Playing Wii Fit made Heath Bell sweat up a storm, why not me? While I was researching the Wii Fit (and thanks, IzzyBeth, for the fabulous reviews), I discovered My Fitness Coach for the Wii, which eventually led to buying both games in April. Which, in turn, led me to buy EA Active the very day it came out. (Wii fitness geek much?) So I think I'm a little tech-heavy with the fitness toys, but it seems to be working. I work out with My Fitness Coach 30-45 minutes daily. I've completed one 30 day challenge in EA Active. I'm a little less mad about Wii Fit now, but I still use it as a scale and my piggy bank/toaster-looking-thing is silver. So here's my daily routine:

30-45 minutes aerobics with My Fitness Coach

30-65 minutes of walking (we've had access to our neighbor's pool this week, so I've been slacking with the walks)

20 minutes or so of the EA Active workouts, which combine a bit of aerobics, strength training and yelling at the annoying trainer avatar

In addition, I've been experimenting with some fitness DVDs: I've tried Jillian's 30 Day Shred and a couple of Samba workouts from Netflix.

All of this adds up to the most exercise I've had in years. It feels so good to move! I can't believe I wasted so much of my life not exercising. But I can't imaging going back- even if I were to enter another binge coma, I'd keep exercising. Exercise is an integral part of my life now. When I've lost weight before, the exercise component was almost an afterthought- now it's front and center.