The Thing About Exercise That No One Talks About…

While I’m off, taking on NYC at the BlogHer conference, a few friends have agreed to guest post here for me.  I have such awesome friends!


First up is someone I blame for blogging.  Oh wait, did I say blame?  Okay, I meant attribute my awesome love for other bloggers to… She was the first to direct me (via a list on her sidebar back in 2006) to OTHER blogs (which I had NO idea how many there were!) and after that my on-line wold opened up like Pandora’s box.


Nicole from As Many As Given is a runner like me, a Texan like me and she has twice as many kids as me! (Yeah, that’s SIX).  She does a feature on occasion about having a lot of children and you just have to read the one about her big van.  She is a friend both on-line and in real life and just an all around wonderful person.  You can tweet with her – she’s @asmanyasgiven and you need like her FB page too! 


Oh, and I like that she’s getting a little “racy” on the blog today…

How many of us are inspired by Elaine and the commitment she has made to fitness? Watching her become a runner (you’ll get back one day E!) was amazing. I love that she continues to find ways to exercise despite injury. Injury can easily become an excuse to just quit all the good work and give up. It takes real commitment to power through it.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.

I try to be regular about my exercise too. There are so many reasons to be active. We all like feeling good in our skin. I love walking into a store and knowing that I’ll likely find more things that fit and are cute than I can actually buy (it is so hard to put the clothes back on the rack! But I love my husband and respect our budget. Most of the time.). I love feeling strong and powerful. When I finished my first (and only, so far) half-marathon a few years ago I couldn’t keep the smile off my face for days. I had done something that was hard, and outside of my comfort zone, and it was amazing. I look forward to training again soon.

But that’s still not what I want to talk about when it comes to exercise.

Friends, all of us active folks are keeping a secret. And it is time to share with everyone. Exercise is not just good for you and your looks. Oh no.

Exercise is good for something so much better. What could it possibly be?

Fun time with your significant other. Yep, I’m talking about what happens behind closed doors. I don’t know why more of us aren’t shouting from the rooftops about this! Sure, you can read a book and that might spice things up once or twice. But I promise you that if you hit the gym or the sidewalk or the weights in your own home, you’re going to experience a whole new level of interest in shaking things up.

I’m sure there are scientific reasons behind this. Stuff about endorphins and so on. But I don’t need a scientist to tell me what is happening. Those feelings of being strong and powerful? They carry over to how you feel in the bedroom. Knowing that you are doing something good for yourself translates to wanting to take care of other aspects of your life. And I think we can all agree that if we are in a relationship we want to take care of it. When I am the gym regularly I know that things are happening at home regularly too. I know that working out is good for my mood. And if I’m in a good mood, I’m way more likely to share that mood with the man I love.

This is not something that only happens to women who are already fit and at their goal weight, I promise. This effect starts as soon as you are in a regular exercise routine. So if the desire to be thinner, or get into a certain pair of jeans, or get off a medication is not pushing you enough, think about the fun you can have at home. And get going.

Don’t believe me? I didn’t start exercising regularly until after I had my fifth child. And now we have six.

Thanks Elaine for inviting me to write. We look forward to you returning from BlogHer and wowing us with your writing once again!

Thank You, Nicole and I have to say, you ARE right about this one!! ;-P