This morning I was awoken by two restless dogs and a hungry cat. Instead of rolling over and going back to sleep and waiting for my alarm, like I usually do, I decided to take advantage of the extra awake time. I climbed out of the blankets and over the dogs, fed the cat, and made a cup of coffee. I let the dogs out into the rainy morning for a bathroom break and began thinking to myself about what I should do with my extra time. I could watch tv, read, clean the house. There were many things other than exercise I could think of doing. At first I made excuses. "It's raining outside and I really dont want to get wet. The dogs dont like walks in the rain anyway." "I have all day to exercise why not watch a couple episodes of my favorite netflix shows or perhaps a movie. When I'm done with that then Ill work out" "There are some great books in the basement that I havent read yet" (they have been there for over a year, I honestly dont think Im ever going to read them.) "there are plenty of dishes in the sink, laundry needs washing, I could vacuume, mop the floors." But let's face it, I dont like cleaning and I know Im trying to be lazy and talk myself out of a workout that I need. So I did what anyone would do and I compromised. I would watch tv and workout at the same time. It was brilliant. I found the on-demand cable feature has workout videos for free. So I scrolled through a few and something that I felt I could do with my knee. Yoga and Belly dancing. Both focus on the core and dont put a lot of stress on the knees. A half hour or so later I was done. It wasnt too hard, and I did feel silly following the instructions of some guy on my tv, but afterwards I felt great. I felt accomplished. My energy level was up and I did something I dont usually do. Later in the afternoon it didnt take a whole lot of self convincing to get some more work in. I did another half hour or so of situps and lunges. It would have been longer except my dogs, Zombie Girl and Booty Boy, really makes situps difficult. Zombie enjoys pushing my head back down when I sit up. Booty just enjoys trying to lay under my back and legs. They love helping me with everything I do. Later in the night I sat down and talked to my husband (a US Marine) and asked him to help me get back in shape. We spent an hour together pushing me to my limits. More situps, pushups, curls, T, Y's and I's, wall squats, leg presses, arm curls and then repeat. My legs hurt, my back hurt, and no excuses were tolerated. I feel like today was a good start. Hopefully soon I wont have to talk myself into exercising, and the excuses will disappear. Soon it will just be routine and habbit to get up in the morning and go for a run or do crunches. I just have to keep telling myself it's worth it and that I CAN do this. I CAN get healthy. I CAN reach my goals. Because you know what? I am determined. I am strong.