Recently I decided that I don’t have to overexert myself to get some decent exercise. I used to be a member of a CrossFit gym, which is a really intense workout. There are men and women methodically climbing mechanical moving ladders, and ropes hanging from forty feet up, while others push monster truck size tires around the room, over and over again. There are exercisers drenched in sweat, furiously rowing or running as fast as they can, squatting heavy weights, kipping on pull up bars, and doing back flips off the walls. Just kidding about the last one, but it was intimidating to walk in to a gym like that.

I used to believe CrossFit or bust. All that hard work for one hour and my body will be owed the equivalent of the calories in a large feast. After a while, I started to realize that I was over-exercising and over-eating. I gained ten pounds when I trained for a marathon a few years back because I felt entitled to eat whatever I wanted, which was not the key to my mental and physical happiness. Although it was an amazing achievement to complete a marathon, I will probably never run one again. It was too stressful on my body, mind and soul.

Don’t get me wrong- my best friend, Steph, lives and breathes Crossfit, because it is the kind of exercise she thrives on. My friend, Alicia, loves to run marathons and excels at them. I don’t do either anymore because they don’t make me feel good.

While some people enjoy strenuous feats like these, I realized that I was not happy exercising so much and then eating so much. It has taken me fifteen years to figure out that I do not need to work so hard to appreciate my body. And, I regularly still have to remind myself this. These days, I do enjoy a weekly aerobics class of some sort, but I mostly walk or jog around my neighborhood.

I think I will start a Walk and Wine Wednesday club. I will invite my girlfriends over for a pleasant stroll, babies and dogs included, and when the hour walk is over, we will end our time together conversing over a bottle of wine, relaxing and rejuvenating. It is supposed to be 65 degrees and sunny here today, so girls, does anyone want to take a walk with me?

Join the club by starting Walk and Wine Wednesdays in your neighborhood!