I Was Told There'd Be No Hills

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I hate exercise. I'm just not the type to exert myself physically unless it comes in the form of dancing while drinking. Growing up, I was in dance from the age of 4 to 10 and then did cheer/dance (we didn't have a separate cheer and dance team, we did both) from age 11 to 17. I love any and everything having to do with dance but any exercise besides that is not my bag.

I do like to exercise my arms.
This is not me btw.

Every once in a while, I get the urge to try and make myself an outdoor/exercise person. I really wish I was into trying new things that I've never done before but I'd rather sit on my ass, watch TV and get skinny by the magic of "think thin" instead of working for it. I know this is a stupid way to think and nothing good ever comes without working hard but I grew up never gaining weight. I'm guessing the 2.5 hrs of dance per day had a little something to do with this. 

Anyway, I told Demanda on Friday that I wanted to do a hike on Saturday. Most of the time, this is just me talking out my ass and then Saturday rolls around, I'm still in jammies at noon and have no plans or desire to do anything else. 

Me, except prettier

Saturday rolled around and Demanda called me around 12:30pm (yes, we live together but she was out being productive while I was rolling out of bed.) and asked if I wanted to go on a hike. I kinda did the whole "eh...well...um....to where?" thing to which she replied that it was on a hike on this trail that she's never been on but it would be fast and easy (like her) and if I didn't want to go, I didn't have to. I said no that I'd think about it and she was on her way home so we hung up. 

She got home and I was just finishing breakfast, still in my jammies while she sat there trying to convince me to go. I don't remember her reasons but since we were going with our friend Daisydarkside and we hadn't seen her in a while, I figured I should probably just sack up, put my big girl panties on and go. But I still wasn't convinced. I have exercise induced asthma and didn't want to slow them down. But then Demanda told me the thing that convinced me to go, which also happened to be the reason I will never trust anything she says again.

What she said:  "Don't worry, it's easy. There aren't any hills." 

Expectation.

What she meant: "We're climbing Mount Everest."

Reality.

About 5 minutes in, I couldn't breathe because silly me, I didn't think there were any hills so I didn't bother to use my inhaler. That's the last time I make that mistake. It was a gorgeous hike up into the mountains of our nice lil city. We walked over bridges, through the woods, through rocky terrain, etc. and I didn't die. That's saying a lot. I probably only complained about 10-15 times and it wasn't even real complains. Just mostly "I wish I had brought tissue/my inhaler/alcohol." I was bummed about one thing though. The sign promised that we would see wildlife, but the only thing we saw were lizards. No mountain lions, bobcats, or vampires (although this one couple started out at the same time on a different trail but we met them coming down WAY quicker than they should have. They were impossibly fast.)

All in all, I'm super glad I went. Sure I can't feel my legs today and I'm walking as if I turned 85 overnight but it was nice to be at the top of that mountain and know that I accomplished more than watching the entire season of a TV show in a Saturday afternoon. Thanks, Demanda for lying to me convincing me to go. Although, I do need to remember this lesson always....