Red Sea

Our friend Maya brandished a gorgeous Gucci bag the other day.

“It’s my reward,” she said.

Reward, eh?

Turns out that she gave herself $10 for every workout session last year. Her approaching wedding was extra motivation. Those $10 sessions quickly added up to become her shoulder’s new best friend.

Sajan and I have been looking high and low for motivation to shed post-wedding pounds. Maya’s story was a light bulb moment. Not fitting into our pants should have been motivation enough, we know.

Let me rewind a few months. Back in the fall, we invested in running shoes from Academy. When I put those shoes on, I felt like Superwoman, like I could run to the ends of the earth. Then winter came, and it took all the fun out of being outside. Lucky for us, Craigslist came to the rescue. Sajan rented a flatbed trailer and hauled home an elliptical from a seller in The Heights.

Now, we bust out the iTouch and listen to music or watch videos while exercising. At first I would get on the elliptical for 4 or 5 minutes. Something was better than nothing, right? Then I worked my way up to 10 minutes. I get so bored exercising if it’s not a team sport.

Sajan and I decided we would each pay ourselves $5 for every solid 20-minute workout.  I’m working toward books. So about every 3 workouts, I can get on Amazon.com and go straight to my wish list. He’s working toward a flatscreen TV, which should take about 100 workouts. Sucker! Just kidding.

Today, I made a chart to track our progress. It’s posted on the fridge.

Flatscreen TV and Books, Here We Come!

What are your motivations to work out? How can we make exercise more fun? What are your favorites places in Houston to get up and get moving?