Excuses

My son goes to an art class every week. His teacher is lovely. Her studio is cluttered, she seems unorganized, but she is brilliantly creative and talented. We enjoy chatting and I often stay 20 minutes or more after class is done visiting.

About six months ago, she was diagnosed with diabetes. She's probably 10 years older than me and 70 pounds thinner. She was diagnosed from 2 glucose tests. She told me that 110 is now the official diabetes number, down from 126. Interestingly, the internet gives 126 as the magic number, and 2 separate tests must show 126 or above. My number was 125 right on the dot when I was in the hospital last year and then when I returned home. Three different doctors saw my numbers and none gave me a diabetic diagnosis.

The third doctor I saw was the one who told me I was pre-diabetic. I had never heard of that term, and so I did my research. Pre-diabetis, Syndrome X, insulin resistance: I have it. And that is probably the biggest reason why I started this journey although the thing that motivated me to start was seeing my photo at 282.5.

So his teacher and I visit about health, exercise, nutrition, etc. She has a membership to Curves but never goes. She and her buddy who like to go together can never get together at the same time. If they can, it's once a week. Not realizing it was the wrong question, I asked her why she didn't go alone. Her eyes got as large as saucers and I heard every excuse in the book.

While on the subject of Curves, she stated it was her favorite form of exercise because she doesn't sweat there. She told me she can go there, work out, come home and teach a class with no need for a shower in between.

She told me when summer gets here, she'll be able to exercise more because she'll have more time.

She told me it was impossible for her to exercise during the school year because she teaches part time at a church school, then has three classes a week in her studio.

She started in with a very long list of all the reasons she couldn't.

I'm not meaning to be mean or pick on her. I'm just sharing my observations. The reality is this: She doesn't want to exercise, knows she should, so makes excuses.

I never wanted to exercise, either, even though I enjoyed it once I started.

I had a membership to Curves once. It's not for me. While I liked the machines, I never got out of breath, I never raised my heart rate. I did maintain my weight loss while I went, but I know my cardiovascular system did not improve like it has from doing my exercise videos. My muscles did not tone as much as they have while exercising at home. I didn't sweat.

If someone would have asked me a few months ago why I didn't exercise, I would have been brutally honest and said: Because I don't want to. That's the simple truth. I may have thrown in an excuse that it's hard to do while homeschooling and I'm usually too tired at night. Both are true statements, but if you want something bad enough, you'll figure out a way to do it.

Exercising every day has been difficult on our schedule. I homeschool my son who has ADD with no hyperactivity, and other medical issues. One of the main reasons we started homeschooling was because he could not learn in a classroom because he couldn't pay attention due to sensory overload. He's finally able to do things without me sitting next to him keeping him on task. So I can slip away for an hour while he's doing an assignment.

The flow of the day is off. I don't want to shower first thing as I know I will sweat like a pig when I exercise. So that's still sort of off for me. Yet with all the weirdness it has added to our schedule, we're adjusting. We're getting done what needs to get done.

So no more excuses for me. It's something I have to do every day for the rest of my life. Yes, I will miss a day here and there. I still haven't fallen into the every day routine, but I'm close. The benefits are wonderful, as I can feel muscles in my body now, I exercised away a panic attack, and I know my blood work will be better, I can't wait to see the results. I know it is of great benefit to my body. Hopefully I can keep diabetes at bay, or if I have it now, I can keep it under control.

Now, to work on my excuses for why I don't get my veggies in. That's a post for another day.