Movement=Rewards.

It's been almost a year since I started seriously working out and eating right. In that year, I've noticed that there are countless rewards that are results of exercise and clean eating. The really cool thing about these rewards? They come one at a time and they're usually stretched out over several months.

What do I mean by this? Well, I mean that when you decide you're going to change your life, you get a gift every few months that will surprise you. And it's a gift that only you can give yourself. You just have to make it through the first month or so and you will start to see these amazing gifts.

The first gift I noticed was peace-of-mind. When I finished a workout, I knew it was over for the day, I knew I had done more today than I had done for many many months, even years, preceding that day. It took some time of not "seeing" any results for me to convince myself that I had to keep going, regardless of seeing those results. When I admitted that to myself, I was able to reason that I would eventually start seeing results-much more so than if I were to continue lounging all of the time and eating poorly.

A few months in (three), I finally was presented with the next gift. After weeks upon weeks of no change on the scale, I stepped on one Friday morning to see that I had lost EIGHT. POUNDS. And a few weeks later, I had lost another eight pounds. And now I am at my first goal weight. So no. I wasn't able to just melt the pounds away immediately. But I was able to stick with it until I finally started shedding pounds.

...and right around the same time, I started noticing something. I had this new feeling after my work outs that I had never felt before. It's called a runner's high, and while I don't find myself actually running very often, I finally understand why people work out day after day. To feel incredible. To feel energized.

Then, one of the most noticeable gifts, the gift of being pleased with your appearance. Here's what you get with that. You get to look in the mirror and finally be at least content with what you see. You get to have pictures taken of yourself without having to use tricky angles. You get to sit on a chair at a restaurant and not constantly be adjusting your shirt to sit properly over your tummy. (Unless you've carried a baby. And then you get to keep some tummy, but oh well. Battle wounds, I guess.)

And since then, I have been able to experience all of these things before, during, and after every single workout. But I haven't gotten a new gift until last weekend. It's a gift I had all but promised myself I would never be able to get, I would never be able to understand. The gift of enjoying workout pain. While on a bicycle ride with my husband (a ride that, for the most, part is pretty flat), we were climbing a hill that seemed to go on forever and I realized, "I like this. I like this sore-muscle, out-of-breath, dizziness," And that was it.

So, friends. I've said this before. I am the living proof that you can turn yourself from someone who has never worked out before into an exercise fanatic. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. That doesn't mean I didn't over-indulge on Thanksgiving or that I don't skip workouts from time to time. But I love it and I'm confident that if I can love it this much, anyone can. Like I've said so many times before.