Like everyone else, I’ve been feeling a lot of angst over the current financial downturn we find ourselves in. Not only am I worried about my job, but I’m also worried at a more global level, about the future of this great country of ours, the downfall of the great capitalism that made our country rich with opportunity, and the poor people who have thought they were going to be able to retire and have had to put their retirement plans on hold indefinitely or for a few years because their retirement plans, largely filled with stocks and mutual funds, have been slaughtered.

I got a bug up my butt a few nights ago, on the weekend, and decided that I was going to finally paint our guest bedroom with the Harbor Mist blue color that I had purchased from Benjamin Moore paint over 6 months ago. I was actually starting to get worried that the paint would have gone bad and would not be usable since it had been so long, but alas, the paint was fine, I just had to work up the ambition to actually tackle the room all by myself!

It’s no secret that running produces endorphins if you do it for long enough, producing what many runners claim is what keeps them on the running circuit, called a “runner’s high”. This is where if a runner is at it long enough, they experience a rush of endorphins, the feel good happy chemical that is released by the brain by certain events and sometimes even certain foods, usually after they are already exhausted, making the whole experience worth it. So, is this so called runners high the reason why runners have been pinpointed as enjoying longer lives and less serious health problems?

Man, I’ll tell you what. I’m a regular excerciser by nature. I started working out at the tender age of 14 years old, when most of my friends were just worried about boys and starting to wear makeup. I was already buying the Cindy Crawford workout tapes and doing them religiously every day. That and The Firm tapes were my favorite. Granted, I had some body image issues, and I attribute this early age of starting to frequently work out as part of my psychosis over my body changing, but I’m glad that I started to yearn for exercise at a young age, or else it may not be as embedded a need in my mind at the age of 34 today.

I’ll often go out for a walk or a run/walk or jog on the days when it’s still nice enough to go out in the fall, or even in the winter when we might get a little winter thaw here in Northeast Ohio, and I see the same women oftentimes, pushing her stroller, jogging. I always think to myself, now see, that’s dedication!

And she looks fantastic, very athletic and in shape, and there’s a reason for that. Even with a newborn, you can still take care of yourself and your body, and make sure you’re still getting the exercise that you need to stay healthy, mentally happy and maintain a healthy, ideal weight for your height, weight and body type.

Triathletes tend to be one of the leanest, meanest types of people. They’re usually the type who never miss a workout and who are very conscientious about what they put in their bodies. You may find things like nutrition bars and proteing supplements in the lunch pale of a triathlete rather than pure carbs, and some fruits and veggies for better sustainable energy. Triathletes are even more serious sometimes than marathon runners.

My boyfriend just recently had a group outing with his company where there were many different outdoor sports played. One of them was football, which of course had him in all his glory since he loves the watch football and knows a lot about the sport to begin with. He said he scored the most touchdowns on his team and I was having Al Bundy flashbacks lol. Just kidding.

One of the main reasons that those of us who exercise our whole lives and feel lost without it, and pretty “yucky” when we go a while without making it to the gym or giving the old track a go, or however else we get our sweat in, is because exercising makes us feel good. It makes us feel more energetic, puts us in an instantly better mood, and improves our self esteem since our body image and self awareness escalates. Most extremely successful people exercise regularly, and that is part of the reason for their success, or vice versa, and it’s these types who are most drawn to the benefits of exercise.