Weather Conditions

Before I was a fit and fab Mamma I had numerous excuses up my sleeve to ardently avoid any form of strenuous activity. Even in the bedroom Muscle Man was left with the brunt of anything energy exerting and when it came to physical activity, hanging nappies on the clothesline was about as good as it got for me.

I was not always deliberately lazy I might add. Growing up, Sexy Twin and I played netball with the Primary School team. In High school I enjoyed a brief stint in the girls rowing team, and for a few fleeting months, Nardi and I, along with some other girlfriends, formed a women's basketball team. It's also worth noting that Sexy Twin and I were required to ride our push bikes to school and back each day for many years (a 14 kilometre round trip). Rain, hail or shine. One of the happiest days of my young life was the day Sexy Twin and I had our bikes stolen. From that moment Mum was forced to drive us to school every day, or fork out for a bus ticket. Yes, it was a great, and lazy day.

Yep, in my very youthful school years I was pretty active. Growing up as a child in the delightful 80's and early 90's we partook in cubby house building, bike races (until mine was stolen), swimming in the dirty leech infested creek (ewww, this still gives me the heebie jeebies), climbing trees and running bare foot every where we went. Yes, those were the days. Hypercolour was cool and it was perfectly normal to not return home until dinner was being placed on the table, after having left the house at the crack of a sparrows fart that morning. Hardly anyone we knew was "fat", and life was simple and care free for a young whipper snapper like me.

It was around high school (year 8 camp remember) that this all changed. Then that I became somewhat corrupted by body image and low self esteem. Sure, in year 10 at high school I was in the rowing team for a few months, but mainly that just consisted of horrible early morning starts where we would row as fast and far away from our coach as we could and then sit in the middle of the lake singing Disney songs (I agree, what the heck was I doing singing The Little Mermaid at age 16).

Anyway, I digress (as usual)... years before Jim was born, and for at least 12 months after, exercise did not exist for me. I'd been scared off by that magpie for one, and was just too darn lazy to try again. I had a million excuses to stay planted on my arse (as we all do). Some were reasonable; Magpies for example, some were just flat out pathetic (hair washing day for one).

One guaranteed excuse was always the weather. It was either too hot, too cold, too windy, too rainy, too Autumn, too Summer, too Winter or Spring. The elements were the perfect excuse by far. If it rained it was even better as no one in their right mind works out in the rain right! Yes, every season came with it's own list of reasons to avoid putting on the Lycra and getting physical.

When I purchased my treadmill it unwittingly removed so many of these excuses. Not even now with duct tape holding the cord together in places do I feel I have a justifiable reason to not exercise on most occasions, or weather conditions. Christmas Day even saw me racing home in between lunch and dinner to run a cool 6kms on the tready before indulging in Peach Schnapps Cocktails with the fam.

Obsessive, yes possibly. But then the way I also look at it is that by moving my butt each day I am allowing myself the opportunity to indulge in the peach schnapps without the added guilt of not having earned them (yep, the "earning" thing again).

This afternoon I decided Muscle Man and I would go for another run around the lake. Herding the family into the car like a sheep dog, I was trying to mentally prepare myself for the head wind I was sure we would encounter. The car was having trouble staying it's course on the road it was THAT windy. What were we in for.

Well off we set, kids rugged up with gloves, beanies, blankets, hot water bottles (OK, that's a lie). Muscle Man and I again in running attire. We had not jogged 1 kilometre when we were both assaulted with a vicious gust of wind. Can I just say, that on days like today I feel sorry for anyone wearing a toupee! Not even the strongest wig glue would stand a chance in winds like these.

Willow trees were blowing about in the blustery conditions and the usually flat lake was making record waves at 10cm's high. Muscle Man and I took it in turns to push the pram and each time we'd swap over the non-pram-pusher would suddenly and unexpectedly surge ahead without the added weight and wind barrier of a twin pram with a rain cover and 30 something kilos of children's weight.

As we rounded the final bend and the last 2 kilometres, I was acutely aware that this was the exact kind of day I would formally have stayed firmly indoors without a seconds thought. I'd have been sitting on the couch, woolen rug over my legs, family cat on my lap, cuppa in hand (OK, hot chocolate in hand) feeling very justified at doing nothing. It was simply too cold and too windy, of course.

Well, not anymore. I have and do now jog in the rain, hail, sun and WIND. I exercise in Autumn, Winter, Summer and Spring. The funny thing is, the season I refused to exercise in the most (winter) is actually now my favourite. After all, how much easier would it be to simply stay indoors?