Love the one you're with. Even if it's a machine.

Okay, some of you need to wash your minds out right now. Sheesh.

Ellie's a very respectable exercising machine

You might have noticed that there has not been a galaxy of sparkling gold stars on the blog lately.

Partly that's because I'm being picky. In the old days (i.e. last year), I'd stick up a star if I got any exercise in for the day, even some easy-paced walking. Now, I want to achieve the specific exercise that I posted or it doesn't count. At first, I wasn't sure if this was being persnickety or holding myself to a higher standard. Maybe both.

I think, on reflection, that it's a bad thing. I should post the exercise I do, even if it's not the exercise I want to do. Otherwise, I'm shooting myself in the foot here.

For example: sometimes I won't have time to jog, but I could slip in a quick* 20 minutes on the elliptical. However, since I'd posted that I would jog, it seems 'not good enough' to do what I can and ellipt. So I'll either not post the star up on the blog, since I didn't do the 'right' exercise, or -- wait for it -- I'll end up skipping exercising altogether for that day. The idea in the back of my mind, vague as it is, is something along the lines of "If I can't do the exercise I want, there's no point in doing any at all." Please feel free to point out that idea is pretty damned stupid. I agree. It's just my perfectionist tendency cropping up in a new guise.

Thankfully, I don't usually fall into that trap -- especially now that I've dragged that vague idea out of the back of my mind and subjected it to the unkind light of analysis. I generally do get in a few miles of walking even if I do nothing else. I keep the running (sic) total on the sidebar up to date.

Goal of the week: The computer is turned off at 7:07 pm. No cheating.
Done! Well... it will be in six minutes. I shan't be leaving any comments on any blogs tonight.

Exercise du jour: 8 miles on the bicycle. If I can't do that, I'll at least slip in a couple miles of walking at lunch and 20 minutes ellipticalling when I get home. One way or another, I'm gonna get that star up on this post.
20 minutes on the elliptical. The headache doesn't want to exercise tonight, and I'm humoring him. (No, "the headache" is not a euphemism for a significant other.)

*As opposed to a slow 20 minutes. Time expands or contracts during exercise depending on the excellence of the playlist on the iPod.