For 40 minutes every morning at the gym, I am QUEEN OF THE WORLD. Not Queen of the Gym--there are many people in way, way better shape than I. But with my elliptical and my "Law and Order," for 40 minutes each day, I feel powerful. I feel as though I can conquer the world, or at least Level One on the machine's QuickStart program.
I have never been much of an athletic person. In high school, I managed sports teams because it enabled me to get out of PE. I learned about scoring certain sports, and I had some camaraderie with the team members, but mostly, I got out of PE.
I have had a few athletic spurts along the way--the purchase of a home stair climber when I was first working, several stints doing the 5-Boro Bike Tour with my husband, and a short-lived Y membership so that I could swim in the mornings before work.
Mostly, I have been in not great shape and not much of a fitness role model for my kids, so at 10 weeks and counting, this is probably the most sustained stretch (pun intended!) of exercise I've ever done, and the fact that I haven't quit despite having to do it at 5am now that school has started suggests to me that maybe, just maybe, it has become as routine as, and perhaps more important to me than, brushing my teeth. Because while brushing my teeth may give me fresh breath for a few hours, the gym gives me a powerful feeling I can turn to all day, so that in the weak moments, when I am feeling more like a lowly servant, I can remember being QUEEN OF THE WORLD!
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