Toxin! X

Okay, peeps. Double-post day!

One more quick blurb for now before I pivot to other afternoon things!

This one is a fun, and all about...exercise!

(Ha. YES, I do swear it's kind of fun! [Maybe-kinda-sorta.])

Long and short...Chica has now completed her years of school-centric athletics, and other than a silly little athletic course-requirement at some point in High School, she's done-done.

I'm so proud of her dedication these past few years--especially as she pushed herself with Cross Country and Track, and learned her likes and dislikes, while she kept her body moving and grooving.

But now, she's transitioning into that wonderful and terrible adult-ish life challenge of keeping her body active and giving it exercise, when there are no requirements to do so!

(A challenge for all of us, right???)

Welp.

For the past few summers, Chica was required to attend a summer conditioning camp at the middle school, to keep her endurance up. Four days a week, in the mornings (that we were in town), for about 6-7 weeks of the summer.

That camp was called Venom (an homage to the school name), so we took a funny play on it and created Chica's very own self-directed exercise plan called...

Toxin! X

Tehe.

Long and short: she decided on a three-day-a-week schedule of launching morning exercise when Chicklet now leaves for her turn at Venom Camp.

Chica tackles some warm-up activities, then sets off for a slow walk when I take Coda pup for hers, and then ramps into a full-mile run (sometimes a bit more) to try and beat me home. Then, when she arrives, she tackles a few more conditioning exercises...and promptly showers and collapses on the couch.

I think she's totally enjoying the freedom of this self-directed exercise, and the joy of doing it on her own timetable, in her own neighborhood, with no peers to measure herself against.

She's her mother's daughter, in this exercise regard.

Plus, Little Man has joined her, on occasion, when he needs to get some wiggles out, and it's been really cute to see them work themselves to exhaustion in a short, half-hour time frame.

This was Day 1:

(Side note: I love seeing Chica bust out her cute athletic gear that she's a bit too self-conscious to wear around allllll her peers.)

Day 2 and Day 3 were just as jovial--and painful, ha:

This week, she's had to switch things up because of morning VBS commitments (more on that, later), but it's fun to see this new summer exercise adventure grow some roots and bloom.

There is truly nothing more valuable than a lifelong ability to work some tolerable movement into one's life--as much for mental health as physical! And I'm so glad Chica is exploring one way to accomplish this, during a looser summer schedule.

More catch-up posts soon, peeps!

Over and out.