Doing Something Right

Sometimes I forget to acknowledge the good things in my life.

Like yesterday's run, which was stupendous, btw. (Do you like text messaging shorthand? Jury is still out for me.) And here is why the jog was so stupendous. I woke up feeling sluggish, and in my mind, I thought, "Well, we'll just have to see how this goes. Because right now, I'm not feeling it."

And then I went out to get started. The first two miles were not great. They weren't horrid, but they weren't great. I'm having thoughts of quitting and just walking it off or whatever. Lame excuses about why I shouldn't do this abound in my head. Still, I hold out, thinking what's three miles, after all. Three miles? That is nothing, nada, zilch! And then I'm getting to about two and a half miles, and I get a second wind. And this second wind, well, it was no ordinary second wind, you see. It was the energizer bunny of second winds because it just keeps on going and going. I mean for almost an hour, this second wind kept going. No lie, which I mean, when does that happen, is what I want to know. But it was happening, let me tell you. So suddenly I'm on for eight, and I'm not stopping.

Even more? Let me tell you about the weather. Now TXas is hot, and there have been some barn burners already. But not Saturday. Saturday, Saturday. I could write and ode to the perfection that was Saturday. It was breezy and cool - around sixty degrees, which is the exact temperature I like when I go out for a run. And the sky was so so blue and the clouds were fluffy white. And...AND!!! It is so prefectly green right now - the pretty spring green that hasn't had too much heat and sun so that it's been scorched away, into a sort of green but a sort of rusty brown that comes when temperatures get into the 100s and the humidity climbs and then soars. So that was pretty awesome is what it was.

And I was running with this stupendous second wind and this sparkly dream of a day. I did it, I tell you... a full eight miles. So I guess as it turns out I actually was feeling it. I wish every day I could run like that.

What I also saw was the blessing that came because of my positive attitude about exercise these past two weeks. I've worked hard. I've spent an hour to an hour and a half working out daily. I've done two work outs a day, even. I've been eating well. I'm kind of on fire!

Sometimes - well, so mostly all the time - when I start out on a new health regiment, I look at the scale and focus on a number. And I forget the milestones don't have to be marked by pounds lost or a number on a pair of jeans. Milestones can be marked in other ways. They can be marked by appreciating how sore your body gets after really pushing it hard and then being grateful when it bounces back so quickly. Milestones can be marked by noticing that your muscles feel tighter under your skin or how exercise makes your skin glow. Milestones can be marked by a really stupendous run in perfect weather.

There is a lot to be grateful for when you do something right. When you work, you see results in so many ways. And it is especially good to notice and be grateful that the work you put in really does pay off. So I am grateful for the work so that I could have that perfect morning and that perfect jog.