So you think you're in shape

from the NHS website

It's amazing what motivates me to get back into a workout regime. While we were at the hotel hot tub in Regina, the night before my defense, a group of older ladies reminisced about spending the middle-aged period of their life trying to get back their "pre-baby" body.While it was rather flattering - their wistful conversation commenced after I walked by - I was shocked at the notion that they wanted their "pre-baby body". As a female within a viable reproductive age, I realized this could be the pre-baby body that I reminisce over in the upcoming years.Since I most likely have at least a couple years until babies are a viable financial option (step 1: get a job. step 2: don't quit job), why not use this time to get a pre-baby I want to be jealous of?

Monday morning, full of vim and vigour, I loaded up a new podcast from the National Health Service (from UK). It's designed to take you from the couch to running 5K in 9 weeks. I thought, as I pulled on my knee braces and running shoes, "this will be so easy. I'm not a couch potato, I'm a lapsed athlete".

Nope, no, definitely a couch potato. Week 1 is exactly the right amount of challenge for me to realize that I'm out of shape, without defeating me! The best part of this podcast is it combines both music (timed appropriate for whether you're running or walking) and encouragement as you go through each interval. And it's only 30 minutes (including a warm up and cool down).

It's available for free on iTunes or the NHS website, so you can try it out too! Let me know how you find it!