Jacket: Lululemon (Similar) | Top: Lululemon| Leggings: Zella | Shoes: Nike (on sale!)

As we get older, fitness needs to become more important in our lives, not less.  While we’re raising our children and running them here and there, it’s easy to skip that part of our day.  It’s amazing to me the silly excuses I’ll use to justify missing a work out.  How about the mornings you wake up with great hair? “I don’t want to mess it up by getting sweaty!”  Yep, I’ve used that more than once.  I mean really, don’t you cherish those days you wake up with great hair?  When I have those days, I find I need to push myself to work out anyway, or I need to set aside time that evening to fit it in.  Because, honestly, better than great hair, wouldn’t you rather wake up with a fit body?

“Fit” doesn’t mean “model-sized”. “Fit” means your body is using food and oxygen correctly.  Your heart is healthy and working properly.  Your joints don’t creak (too much) and you have some level of flexibility.  You don’t get winded walking up a flight of stairs.  Most importantly, you are able to get through your day without feeling completely beat up physically.

If you have physical limitations, or if you haven’t exercised in a while, it’s always a good idea to talk with your doctor and to start slowly.  But start.  The first step is often the biggest.  Take it.  It will make all the difference.

There are non-physical benefits to exercise. Exercise relieves stress.  A lot of the tension and frustrations of the day can be worked out of the body through physical exertion.  You don’t have to don boxing gloves and pin a picture to a punching bag.  Even the balance moves of yoga will help melt the stress from your shoulders.

Exercise releases endorphins.  Endorphins lift your mood.  To quote Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, “Endorphins make you happy.  And happy people don’t kill their husbands.”  She may be onto something!  I do feel better after a work out.  Whether it’s the endorphins, or simply crossing the workout off my daily to-do list, I feel so much better when I’ve worked out.  Even if I did mess up my hair.