In Praise of the Elliptical Trainer

This week I have been reading A Walk in the Woods, one of my favorite Bill Bryson books. It's his book about the Appalachian Trail, written after he hiked portions of it in 1996. I love the book first and foremost for his reflections on the American notions of wilderness. Plus the book is startlingly funny....such that I sometimes have to set it down because I'm laughing so hard. Bryson first takes to the trail with a friend and neither of them are the least bit physically prepared for the journey. I like that they persevere anyway. It speaks volumes to me.

For most of my 39 years I have had a love-hate relationship with my own body, with emphasis on the hate. When Lisa and I were first together she made me feel great about my body, though she soon commenced with the criticism and was sometimes worse than the previous record-holder in body criticism, my mother. I got into pretty good shape to be pregnant and was a vigilant pregnant woman, gaining less than 20 pounds. And pregnancy and delivery was really the first time that I liked my body ---- I could do this? It felt empowering. Subsequently, I got more interested in working out, no longer for the benefit of how I looked but finally for the way that being strong made me feel.

So now I am a junkie, running nearly every day on my elliptical trainer. Burning calories and building muscle and keeping my blood pressure low, low, low. I like the challenge of running faster or at a harder pace. I like the hot sweaty feel of pushing myself to do more. I like that all that running means that I can bike for miles, pulling my boy behind me. I like that I can keep pace with my lightening quick 7-year-old son. I like that people are surprised at how fit I am (because for all my working out, I am no scrawny girl and I still like butter on my bread). I like the fact that working out has given me a much healthier relationship with food.

I've always liked to joke that my body is built for comfort and not for speed and that's still largely true. But when speed ---- or perseverance ---- is called for, I can deliver. And I like that.