Photo: david.bunting on Flickr

So, you may have already guessed. This photo is not of me. I know there is a resemblance and all, but no… I’m a little more… um, what’s the word… brunette.

I am in desperate need of a workout. When I say desperate, I mean I feel like I’m melting. I think I can feel the muscles turning into fat and the fat cells growing in size.

Big-man has been gone two weeks now and because of that, coupled with a few weeks of illness, work events etc. beforehand, I haven’t managed to work out once in about a month now. I’ve had to quit kickboxing for the time being and have not managed to fit in another activity.

The problem is complex but is really taxing my ability to feel like my life is in balance. Mostly because it’s not. I need to be more active than I am, and I absolutely need to find a way to make that happen.

I’m completely open to suggestions, but only ones that don’t include leaving my kid with a babysitter during his waking hours. See, he’s already in daycare 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. He sleeps 11 hours at night and, thus, is only awake 13… so subtract the 9… you can see where I’m going with this one.

I get up between 5 and 5:30 every day and have a cup of coffee and go online – check email, twitter and my feeds. At 6am mini-man is up and demanding my attention. I get him something to eat and let him watch TV while I get showered etc. Then I make lunches, get ready and leave for work by 8am.

At 5pm I leave work and pick up mini-man from daycare, get home by 5:30, give him dinner, play a little put him in the bath and put him in bed at 7pm. My after-7pm activities are dictated by the day of the week… Mondays is band, and Wednesdays is my church home group and those are the only two nights of the week I get free babysitting services from my amazing mother in law. If I want to leave the house after 7:30pm any other night of the week, I’ll need to pay a sitter to be home in my place for an hour or two… that would make each workout cost $10-$15 in babysitting alone. I suppose this isn’t a terrible option for maybe once a week – I could go for a run which wouldn’t add any other cost.

I’ve tried getting out with mini-man in the stroller after dinner, but there really isn’t time with only an hour and a half of awake time between daycare and bed. Besides, this weather means everything takes that much longer because we have that much more clothing to deal with. I’m also super afraid of trying to run while pushing 50 lbs. I run slow enough on my own thank you very much.

I may have to resort to the unthinkable: doing some kind of stupid-looking step-like workout video in my livingroom. Ick. I hate sweating where I live. Furthermore, being in a 2nd floor apartment means it has to include no jumping and I have to be able to do it in very little space; I have about 7′ x 7′ to work with. That doesn’t sound like much of a workout, but I guess anything would be better than nothing.

I can’t keep doing this. I need some exercise. I guess I’m off to find a DVD and a local babysitter.

Wish me luck! Maybe one day I’ll be hurling myself in the air for the spike and allowing someone to capture it forever.