I recently challenged myself to complete 100 days of at least 30 minutes of exercise. I wasn’t sure I had enough faith in myself in the beginning to actually follow through with it but, I decided to try. It was time to get in better shape. I have two young boys that like to run and play. My main objective was to be able to keep up with them.

I wish I would have chronicled in writing how different I felt each day. I am on day 68. I know I have changed so much.

I have never been a morning person. When I started this challenge, I told my husband I would have to make time in the middle of the day to exercise. I know if I had tried to force myself into doing it at the crack of dawn I would never have succeeded. My routine the past 2 months has been to get Jacob on the bus, have my breakfast with Christopher and spend some time playing with him. About 10:00 I tell Christopher it is time for me to exercise and he can either do it with me or play while I do it.  He usually tries it for about five minutes then runs off the play. When I finish, I head into the playroom to join Christopher for a bit before taking my shower.  It has been a fantastic routine.

Today, I actually found the ambition to get up and work out first thing this morning. It was a struggle to get out of bed. Most nights, Christopher ends up in bed with me and Jim and snuggles into my like a tic. Having that nice, warm little body snuggled up against me at 5:45am certainly wasn’t giving me motivation to get out of bed. But I started slow.

At 6:00am, I told myself, “Just get up. Go downstairs and start the video. If you find you’re too tired, stop and finish later.” After the 5 minute warm-up I told myself, “Ok, that wasn’t too bad. See how long you can go.” I made it the entire 45 minutes and it felt so incredibly good to have it done! I went up, took my shower then woke my boys for school. I had the whole day ahead of me.

So, while I haven’t written about this from the very beginning, I know how much I have changed and accomplished in the past 68 days. On January 6^th, I didn’t even consider getting up that early. I am now starting to think, I just might have the energy I lacked before to tackle 45 minutes of aerobics at 6am each day.  I think I’m finally starting to believe in me… just a little bit.