An Unexpected Benefit...

Wow has my exercise world changed.

I hate exercise. I've always hated the idea of exercise.

As a child, I loved running around, pretending I was a horse. Hey! Stop sniggering. If you're going to laugh, do it out loud, full out, no holding back.

Why I loved horses: There is a beauty and grace in the combination of power and fragility.

I tore all the ligaments in my ankle at eighteen. My doctor informed me I would have difficulty the rest of my life. He was right.

I'm clumsy. I always have been. Talk about an exercise nightmare.

Balance has also always been difficult for me if both feet aren't flat on the ground. I've been practicing walking on the cement curbs. I am doing better.

Why am I going through all this?

Exercise is not easy!

I hate exercise!

I do it anyway.

Every day.

No matter how lousy I feel.

Why?

Every day, I'm able to point at the exercise I must do first thing in the morning and say, "I did it. I may have screwed up everything else, but I did my exercise, however imperfectly. I did it."