Quelle Difference!

Lots of changes in the G. household. Mrs. G., after spending her entire professional career to date on "off" shifts (started out 3rd shift, went to 2nd shift when we had kids), has finally gotten herself a day position. It's a pain right now, but next year, when my little princess goes off to Kindergarten, we'll be in fantastic shape - no child care expenses!

What this means for me is that, since Mrs. G. is working 6AM - 2:30PM, I am responsible for waking the kids, making sure they don't leave the house nekkid overseeing the dressing process, getting them breakfast, and generally cracking the whip with sufficient force to get two little procrastinators out the door in time for one to catch a bus and the other to get to pre-school. I'm also in charge of creating ginormous run-on sentences.

It's really no big deal; I got das boy up and out the door all last year. This year I have to toss Miss Sleeps-a-lot in the mix.

What it does change, though, is my workout schedule. I'd been waking up at 5:30AM every morning and heading over to my parents' house (all 100' away) to use the ~ $5,000 worth of fitness equipment my dad bought after he had his heart attack/triple bypass. Best kinda gym - free. Well, with my wife going to work at 6, I'd have to be home by 5:45. Which means I'd have to start my workout at 4:45AM. I'd have to wake up at 4:30AM to accomplish this. Now, it's only an hour, right? Hell no, that's a BIG hour... 4:30 AM just ain't happenin'.

So I decided to switch to working out at night. Since Mrs. G. has to be up at 5:00AM, she's in bed by 8:30PM. We put the kids to bed at 8, they're asleep by 8:30, I'm next door working out at 8:35. Tonight was the first night of this new schedule. I had been concerned that working out at night, at the end of a long and hectic day, would be harder than in the morning.

I was wrong.

It was a LOT easier. On the treadmill, I was able to maintain my standard workout pace with no extra effort, and on the stationary bike I actually burned more calories. It dawned on me what the difference was - I was exercising after dinner, with a body full of fuel it was just itchin' to burn, as opposed to first thing in the morning after slowly burning off the previous day's excess calories...

Plus there was the psychological edge of not having to rush home to take a quick shower, get the kids up and ready, and then spend the whole day at work. Now I do my situps/pushups/curls/etc. in the morning before I wake the kids and the cardio portion at night. So far it seems to be a good system. Time will tell - I've been at this for over 9 months now, and can count the number of days I haven't exercised on one hand.

So far it seems to be as good if not better than before. Color me pleasantly surprised...