I HATE to Exercise I LOVE to Tap

So last night I finally went to the gym. YAY! They have these flat screen TV's there each playing a different channel, one sports, one news, one prime time, etc. Well, I started watching E.R. and it was so engaging that I ran for an hour without even noticing. I could have gone longer, except the gym was closing! It was about this woman in her early 30's, she suddenly collapses at home after sending the kids off to school. Turns out she's had a stroke, due to a blood clot traveling to her brain. The scary thing is, something similar happened to my friend Melynda just recently, except it was a blood clot in her lungs, also potentially fatal. Anyway it was that chick from Sex and the City, the short-haired one, and the whole thing was from her point of view, like her internal monologue and what you see from her, the patient's, eyes. She couldn't talk because of the stroke so it was all what she was thinking and trying to say. It was very disturbing, clearly gave you the picture of what it would be like to experience that, the helplessness and fear, etc.

They told her husband that they could either do a procedure where they try to suck the blood clot out of her brain, which could reverse the stroke but also might kill her or put her in a coma, or leave her as is, and she may be able to live indefinitely. He was thinking about letting her live indefinitely so as not to risk her life, and in her head she's like, 'no! i can't live like this! this is worse then death, i'm awake and aware! i consent! i consent!' but of course no one could hear her... so then she raises her good arm, and he notices and comes over. It was so touching i almost got choked up when he said, 'ok, lets do it' because he knew, just by looking into her eyes, what she was trying to communicate.

It made me feel really good about being at the crappy gym, running on a crappy exercise machine, because like, this is one of the things you have to do to minimize your chances of ending up in a situation like that. You *have* to take care of your body in order to enjoy life later on after the years haven't been so kind to you and your youth seems so far in the past.

Also, from a vanity standpoint, everyone wants to have a hot bod! But seriously, after 30 your metabolism starts to slow down, and if you don't double your efforts and really make a commitment to have fitness be part of your life, you will turn into every other 30-something-- you know, the ones you would look upon disdainfully when you were in your high-metabolism-20's, those old, shapless, kind of blobby lumpy unattractive middle-age looking people who look like they just-- gave up? which is kind of my personal nightmare.

So, let this be the first day of the rest of my life, and not a 'new years resolution' that will fizzle out in a few weeks. I'm back on the wagon, er, elliptical machine! Who's with me!!