Order of the day: Motivation

I planned to go to the gym this morning, hoping to burn off the calories I've accumulated over the weekend. Last weekend was Mother's Day and I brought my mom out for afternoon tea at a hotel around town. The variety of food was not much but it was fresh and it was good. Most importantly, they had scones. That's motivating enough for me. Tea time would not be the same without scones ;-)

Anyway, I was up early but lied in bed for a little longer after hitting the snooze button on my cell. This happened a few times until I finally said to myself, "get your ass out of bed or you'll never go today...". Ya da ya da ya da... I can find lots of excuses to skip gym when I am feeling unmotivated. But when my mind is set on gym or something else, nothing can stop me.

One of my gym outlet is located on the second floor of an office building. Most people entering the building to other floors would normally take the elevator from the parking lot. I arrived in the building only to find that the elevator was closed and being serviced. So this resulted in me taking the stairs to the main building before climbing more stairs to reach the gym. Needless to say, I was a little exhausted from my surprise warm-up today. I only wondered about the exhaustion others had when going to higher floors. Is that motivation enough?

I immediately started working out after placing my bags in the locker. I started with the treadmill and proceeded to the stepper/"stair climber". Twenty minutes of each machine was a breeze thanks to 'The Ellen Show' that was on cable then. After the 'stepping' session ended, I saw my boyfriend was already midway through his session on the treadmill. I teased him for being late and went away to work on my abs, not wanting to disturb him further.

But I just couldn't help myself. I know how badly he needs to workout to lose the fat and lower all health risks that are associated with being overweight. I understand because I have also been overweight during my college years and I refuse to be overweight again. I have maintained a healthy weight for some years after college and have slipped sometimes due to stress and boredom. I want to be in the healthy weight range again and I too, need to lose all the fat that I have gained from the culinary adventures during our outings together.

By the time he was done with the treadmill and came over to chat (I was midway of my rowing workout), I saw he was sweating profusely. I was singing Carrie's music from my iPod and I yelled for him to join me because I knew he was vulnerable and needed motivation. He comes over and to my disappointment, other rowing machines were out of order! So he ended up working out on other machines while I finished.

Then we both proceeded to the elliptical machine (my favorite at the gym) and worked out together and I continued singing Ms. Underwood's music ;-) We completed the workout according to the set time. Maybe my singing disturbed him and made him concentrate on his workout or maybe he was trying to get it over with quickly so that he wouldn't have to hear me sing any longer! Either way, I said to him, "I'm glad you've left your iPod at home, else you wouldn't hear me sing for you" (a smirk on my face for that big motivation!). It was a great feeling working out together and seeing him work out hard ended up motivating me in return. Thanks babe.

Cheers.