endorphins

I hate exercise.  Ok, correction, I hate working out for the sake of working out.  I would rather clean my house (bathrooms included).  I danced from the age of three straight through college and spent a lot of time hiking and biking so it was never really an issue before.  However, right now I am on a mission.  I am desperately trying to lose the baby weight from Matthew plus an extra 10 pounds.  I put on a good 50 lbs with each of my pregnancies and although I loose it eventually this being my last one I am determined to get rid of it sooner rather than later.
Enter my stroller class at the Healthplex.  If you have a baby in a Crozer hospital you can get a one year membership to the Springfield Healthplex for their Mom's in Motion program.  They do charge a $25 sign up fee but that is it!  Free!  They offer pregnancy classes- including an awesome water aerobics class- and post pregnancy classes.  The stroller class is perfect for me because it is in the morning when my older boys are at school and I can take Matthew with me so I don't have to worry about finding a sitter for him.  I have been going three mornings a week (except for holidays, sick days and snow days) since Matthew was 6 weeks old and have only 5 lbs left of the pregnancy weight to go! 
You would think that pushing a stroller around could not possibly be much of a workout.  You obviously haven't met Beth!  Beth is our awesome, die hard instructor.  She has us outside the Healthplex when the weather is good walking/running up and down hills (I mostly walk with a little bit of jogging in between), doing lunges and plies and using exercise bands to work upper body muscles.  We also stop to do crunches, push ups and dips.  When the weather is bad we are inside on the track doing laps, as well as all of  the extra usual exercises and Beth brings out the weights or exercise balls.  I like the track workouts the best because I can keep track of how many laps.  Yesterday I got in 2 1/4 miles with a stop after each lap to do some sort of strenthening exercise.  It felt great!
Fridays are the kicker!  We set up in the gym.  We walk/jog around the double basketball court for a while and then Beth sets up different stations for us to use.  There are 12ish stations:  jump roping, 3 different abs, weights for tricepts and bicepts, rowing, squats, push ups, planks, etc.  We do one station for a minute followed by either two minutes of laps or a mad dash across the court and back then we come back and do the next station.
So the best thing about the class, beside the weight loss and the company of other moms, is that I feel better physically and emotionally than I have in a LONG time.  All of those happy exercise endorphins are really doing a job on me, so much so that I am thinking that maybe exercise for the sake of exercise is really not such a bad thing.  Plus I get to eat what I want and that is always a good thing!