My evolution of fitness: Mousercise to 5k

When I was little there was a show on the Disney channel called "Mousercise". I'd get up every morning, put on my very stylish leg warmers and work out with Mickey and a bunch of equally fashionable kids on the tv. My scrawny little body certainly didn't need to lose any weight, but I did it because it was so much fun. Plus when you're 7, if Mickey Mouse is doing it then it must be cool.
For those of you who weren't "hip" enough to know what mousercising is, here's a clip:

My high school cheerleading squad.
I'm in the first row on the right.

As I got older and a little too "mature" to watch the Disney Channel (ok, the show was actually canceled), I started to get my fitness on in other ways. Throughout most of middle school and high school I did cheerleading. And despite what some people think, cheerleading is a sport and kept me in great shape. I also ran track for a season, did gymnastics a bit in high school, and just generally was an active kid.

College came around and so did the dreaded freashman fifteen. I went from playing sports 10 months out of the year to being quite sedentary with a diet consisting of ramen noodles and canned tuna. And even though there was a gym at my school, I worked out a fraction of what I used to. To try and get myself back in shape I enlisted the help of Billy Blanks, Tae Bo extraordinaire. I was soon bouncing around my living room, not too different from my mousercise days, throwing jabs, right hooks, and roundhouse kicks. But instead of giant black mouse training me, it was a muscular, sweaty, black man yelling "come on, harder!" at me. To which I replied, "I'm working as hard as I can Billy Blanks!"

Skip ahead five or so years and here I am training for my first 5k. No doubt this would have been an easy feat for me in my high school days, but a decade and one baby later, I am not quite the athlete I once was.  But I think I've been doing a good job of finding some time to get in a work out here and there.  I like to go for walks with my family, and recently started running more and more (by the way, the new jogging stroller is AWESOME!).  I also found a new love: vinyasa yoga.

I guess the whole point of this is that I wish they'd bring Mousercise back. Not really, but I'd like to make my work-outs just as fun as they were 20 years ago dancing with Mickey, and I want to be able to wake up excitedly looking forward to working out like I did when I was a kid. Maybe I just need some leg warmers.........