Time to Myself

Just before David was diagnosed, I was in the best shape of my adult life. Well, I was in pretty good shape. Okay, so I could walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I was walking regularly, watching my diet and even occasionally lifting weights. Obviously, any mother has a difficult time finding time for herself, but after the autism bomb, I was so consumed by David's needs and his schedule that I stopped making time for myself. Frankly I didn't have the energy. Like I really needed an excuse to stop exercising.

So, it is almost two and a half years later and it is time to get back on the wagon. I had already given up trying to walk on the treadmill while David was home. Although entertaining, I am sure, to any observer, I quickly grew tired of trying to dodge the balls that David would send up the tread behind me and then flap and flap as he watched them roll back down. Obviously, it was time for a new equipment purchase.

It sounds humorous to me now, but I was able to rationalize it at the time. I picked the AirClimber, a lightweight, portable, inexpensive version of a stair climber. I envisioned myself getting in a whole 30 minutes a day--ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes after picking the boys up from school and the last ten minutes after dinner. Well, I didn't consider the David factor. Not surprisingly, the AirClimber uses, you guessed it, air in bellows which offer the resistence while stepping. Consequently, it makes quite a hissing noise. I had not been exercising for a whole minute, listening loudly to music, when David came charging around the corner and tried pull me off of the machine. "No, Mom Mom, No," he kept saying while pulling on the back of my sweatshirt. Here I am, batting at him and trying to release his grip on my sweatshirt, the whole time trying to explain to him and maybe even convince myself that I am going to at least exercise long enough to hear the end of the song. All of the sudden, I hear a sudden release of air and I slowly sink, mid-step, as I realize that David has pressed the button that lets the air out of the bellows. He then looked up at me with his twinkling blue eyes, smiled and went back to the family room to continue playing SpongeBob.

So I guess for now I will have to get my exercise chasing David through the frozen food section, trying the close the freezer doors as quickly as he opens them. Does anybody want to buy a nearly new AirClimber?