All this to lead into the fact that I joined a workout group! The first time I could make it was yesterday, and you guys... I. Am. Dying. I'm so sore today. Which is good. But painful. But good.
The great thing about the group is that it's all moms with young kids, and everyone brings the kids along with jogging strollers. Which is great for a number of reasons-- first, just the fact that it's a GROUP provides some feeling of accountability. For me at least, that's huge. I'm one of those people who (almost) never skipped class in college... I'm generally what you'd call a Rule Follower. So having the feeling that "I'm expected to be there" makes me more likely to do something than just telling myself "I really ought to."
The second great thing is that, frankly, it's hard to exercise when you have little kids. I don't mean physically (though there is that... babies aren't exactly harbingers of well-restedness), but just from a practical standpoint. If you try to do it at home, they're all up in your business. If you try to go to the gym, you've got to find childcare. It's just a huge hassle. A group that welcomes and accommodates kids makes it that much easier.
Third, there are all different fitness levels in the group. I wasn't even one of the last ones in the jogging section, amazingly (and I HATE running, y'all). I can't tell you how happy that made me-- not in a "ha ha, I'm faster than you" way, but in an "I'm not completely hopeless after all" way. I tend to get really discouraged when I'm clearly not good at something, and instead of motivating me to work harder, it just makes me want to quit... which I know is a serious character flaw, and one that's shared by many first-born achiever types (or pseudo-first-borns like me). It's something I definitely need to work on. But not if it's too hard, because then I'll just quit. (Haha, see what I did there?)
Anyway, I won't bore you with constant updates, but I'll let you know how it goes!
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