BAB challenge, week 2 – Why do we put ourselves last?

So I sucked this week. A lot.

I haven’t worked out since last Saturday. As in the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

See, what had happened was that I was on a roll. I was working out, eating my salads, being more active that usual, rolling on the floor with the kids. Basically just doing the damn thing.

Then I did all that and got sore. Figured, let me give these hard-working muscles a chance to rest a day. One day turned into two. Two days turned into, “Nope, I don’t need to get up early to workout! I work hard all day and I deserve an extra 20 minutes of sleep, not sweat!”

Boo-hiss to me. I deserve better than this. I deserve to feel good about myself. I’m a good mother. A good wife. A good friend. A good employee. Why can’t I make time for myself and actually follow through consistently? Whenever there’s a change in my schedule, the workout is the first thing to go. I figure I’ll squeeze it in later, but alas, later never ever comes.

To top things off, my hubby bought me an elliptical for Mother’s Day. He knows how hard it is for me to find time to workout, so if I had access to some cardio equipment, how easy could it be?

But he assembled it on the “other” side of the basement, where the workbench is. The TV is on the finished side of the basement and I don’t exercise without a TV, man. If I don’t have a Golden Girls episode (don’t laugh – the writing is on point!) or a King of Queens rerun to distract me from the fact that I’m sweating and huffing and puffing then forget it.

In the O magazine interview with the First Lady, Oprah asks Mrs. Obama how she manages to keep her 5 a.m. workouts. She said that she would get up at 5 a.m. for her job or get up that early for the kids, so why wouldn’t she get up for herself? I love how she doesn’t consider working out to be optional, but rather, a “must-do.”  

So I promise to do better. No more putting myself last all the time. I will stick to my workout schedule. No more excuses.