My Old Enemy

I work as a server at ****** *****, so I spend a good chunk of my shift on my feet. I do a fair of amount of lifting (certain cold shellfish dishes are heavy) and even a bit of furniture moving (setting up for large parties). I also have to park in a parking garage on either the fourth or fifth floor. A while back I decided to park on five, walk down the stairs and elevator up at the end of my shift. I justify that walking down the stairs gives me a little more exercise than taking the elevator and I can feel good about doing my hard work out for the day.

I know.

I get some exercise at work but I know it needs to be more. Last night fate gave me more.

It was a busy Friday night. I did a ton of moving around and ended my shift with sore legs and a sweaty me. I walked back to the parking garage and saw a sight that struck terror into my heart. The elevator was broken. I had no choice but to climb up to the roof to find my car.

Stairs!

Flight one was okay. "Maybe I'm not as out of shape as I thought," I thought as I started the second flight. Two steps into the second flight the thought changed to. "Oh, maybe I am as out of shape as I thought I was," as I struggled to find breath as I approached the third floor. It's a good thing I wasn't thinking out loud, wasting precious breath. By the end of the third flight I knew I had just one more set to go. I considered sitting by the elevator to wait for the repair man to show up. It was late Friday night, so I knew he wouldn't get the until Monday at the earliest. I'd have to wait three nights before I could take the elevator. I still thought about it but decided that maybe it wasn't the best idea. I forged ahead.

When I finally reached my destination I thought that my body would explode. My legs were screaming at me. My heart was saying "seriously?" and my lungs... well I think my lungs decided to wait on the fourth floor for the elevator to get fixed.

I have to work tonight. I have to work Sunday night. I know that the elevator won't be fixed so at the very least I'll have to climb to floor four at the end of it all, but I think I'll still park on five. I'll still climb to the roof. And I think I'll still do it when the elevator is fixed. I think it's called a Lifestyle Exercise. If it's not I'm dubbing the term now. Basically it's a thing you do in your daily routine that is a form of exercise that doesn't involve going to the gym or running around in circles. We're still going to do the gym, but I think finding little Lifestyle Exercises in various pockets of my daily to-dos will be a big step to reducing my body fat.