Exercising and Eating Ice Cream

I will be the first to admit that I once thought exercise evil :) Just the mention of it, made me cringe. I was always the girl that came in last on the mile run at school, was always the last picked on the dodge ball team and so on. I did not like exercise, working out or really anything that had to do with sweating. When I heard people describe exercise as cathartic, stress relieving, calming...I thought they were nuts!! But something inside me started slowly changing. It happened about two years ago when the nutritionist that I am seeing mentioned the word "exercise" to me. Believe me, I put up a fight. I did NOT want to exercise. She let it go. Then she brought it back up again and I eventually gave in and said that I would "try" it. I had an old stationary bike at home that Mom and Dad had given me:

 I got on it. I forced myself to stay on it for 5 minutes. Five minutes, normally, is not a long time, but those five minutes seemed like 55 minutes to me. I was dying; I was sure of it. I was huffing and puffing and sweat was coming off of me like I had just stepped out of a rainstorm, but I did it - five whole minutes. And I did it without dying. But, I was done for the day! I reasoned with myself that if I could ride for five minutes every day that would be good enough (and it was). The following week, I decided to do ten minutes. Again, cue the dying music. I didn't think I'd make it - but just like the week before I did! I was so proud of myself. Just as I was getting in the groove of this exercise thing - the bike broke! This is where, looking back, I realized, I was changing. Because, instead of just throwing up my hands, I first tried fixing the bike and then when I realized that that was a hopeless cause, I put out an alert via Facebook to see if anyone had a bike they wanted to get rid of. And sure enough, someone in my church did! They delivered the new bike within a day or two and I was off to the races! 

I had to start all over again with going 5 minutes at a time and then 10 minutes. Eventually I got up to 20 minutes and then 30 and then 45 and then - yes I made it all the way up to an hour. I couldn't believe it - me, Stephanie, the one who never in a million years thought I would ever exercise, was now riding an exercise bike every day for an hour. Every day. For an hour. Where once I couldn't stand even the thought of exercise, now I couldn't stand the thought of NOT exercising. I finally knew what people were talking about when they said that they got that "runner's high". I wasn't running, but boy did I sure feel the high. I felt like I could do anything. Just me, the bike and time....

I rode my new recumbent bike so much that it broke too (after a year). I was heartbroken. I wasn't sure what I was going to do without it. I was going to get it fixed, but what would I do in the meantime? I started to panic. Then a thought came to me. Could I possibly run? If you know me at all, you know I don't run. Sheesh - I can't even walk without assistance! How in the world would I run?! I thought to myself - "it's just me here by myself in the house. If I fall, I fall and I get back up." With that, I started running in place. OK - so maybe it was more like stepping in place! I had to hold on to the door frames to keep my balance, but I was doing it! Again, I started small - 5 minutes and then I worked my way up. But boy was I ever excited when my bike was fixed!! I could finally sit down and relax - haha!! But because I was exercising so much by this time, my nutritionist actually ordered me to start eating ice cream:

Yep, that's right - she ordered me to eat it. It was either that or give up the exercise. Never in my life would I have ever thought that 1) I would LOVE exercising as much as I do 2) Actually be ordered to eat junk food. But I didn't want to stop the exercise, so I added ice cream to my diet. I was terrified to say the least that I would gain the weight I had worked so hard to lose back. This is where trust came in. I had to trust that my nutritionist knew what she was doing. So, trusting her, I went to the grocery store and bought ice cream. It took several weeks, but I finally found my favorite - Coconut Overload. It was a brand new Kroger brand flavor and I loved it!! After working out, it was my reward. And guess what?! I didn't gain the weight back! My nutritionist was right - everything balanced out! I ate so much Coconut Overload ice cream, the nutritionist joked I should buy stock in it and my mom said I should write a book on how I lost weight all while eating ice cream every day :) But then one day, I went to the store and noticed that my beloved ice cream was listed as a "close out" item. I knew what that meant, but asked a store employee just to be sure. She confirmed - they were no longer making the product and therefore no longer selling it. I was sad :( So, I went home and exercised! Eventually, I found my new (and current!) favorite ice cream - chocolate butter toffee. I was happy - exercising on my stationary bike and eating ice cream :) But, just 2 months ago my bike started acting like it had before when it broke and then after a couple more exercise routines, I lost resistance in it and it broke - again! This time, I didn't panic like I did the first time. I just got up and started "running" in place. After a couple of workout sessions, I wondered if I could do better. My idea of "doing better" was actually to run in place (get my heart rate up) and let go of the door frames :) So, I tried. And guess what?! I succeeded!! I didn't fall! I've found that if I concentrate on one thing (in my case the TV!) and not really think about what I'm doing (running) I keep my balance! It's amazing. That's not to say, I haven't tripped or banged my knees (I'm currently sporting green bruises on both knees, all in honor of St. Patrick's Day of course!), or had to grab the door frames, but I haven't fallen! Dare I say that I am having a blast exercising?! I've decided that I'm going to buy a new bike, but I have to wait on tax refund money before I can do that. That is unless any of my friends want to take a stab at fixing (once again!) my old bike! I really don't know what's gotten in to me. Just a short two years ago, I wouldn't have even considered entertaining the idea of exercise and now I can't get enough of it. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but I'm having fun exercising and eating ice cream.

This is me on the left Christmas Day 2011 and me on the right Christmas Day 2012. I keep the picture on my fridge to remind me and inspire me to keep the weight off.