I love to work out…it’s one of the things that I find is essential to staying halfway sane (not shooting for totally sane…let’s not be ridiculous).  I do however get bored quickly so I find that variety is key to keeping me interested in working out.  That means new stuff often, which can get pretty expensive.  I’ve found some workout goodies online recently that are almost all free and are completely awesome.

www.ExerciseTv.com – I’d tried some of the workouts on ExerciseTV, on my actual TV, and liked them.  I recently visited their website and holy cow, it’s like landing in Heaven for this workout video junkie.  (I have a slight obsession with buying and trying new exercise videos. Like I said, expensive.)  Their are tons of great workouts you can view on your computer.  I use my laptop in the garage and my wireless headphones…it’s a fantastic setup.  Many of the workouts are free and most are available to download for just a few dollars.  I haven’t bought any yet – I’m enjoying trying out new ones right now, such as Cardio Dance Party and 20 Minute Fat Burn.

Yoga Download – I love , love, love YogaDownload.com.  I’ve bought many yoga dvds over the years, but it wasn’t until I started using the classes from Yoga Download that I really began to *get* yoga.  While they do offer pose guides and video classes, the audio instructions are so good at explaining what to do when and how that I now prefer doing audio workout for yoga.  Twenty-minute versions of many of the classes are available as free downloads (on the site or through iTunes) and longer classes are available for purchase at very reasonable prices.  Do the Lunar Flow #1 before bed and sleep like a baby…seriously, you have to try it.  The Hip Opening Flow classes are wonderful…I didn’t even realize my hips were tight until I did this class the first time.  It felt so great to loosen them up.  Yoga for Runners is also a personal favorite. Did I mention that I love Yoga Download?

MotionTraxx is highly recommended if you get tired of the same old music when you work out. With my attention span, this happens all the time.  Deekron the Fitness DJ puts out these awesome workout mix podcasts.  You can choose the BPM you want, depending on how fast you want to run or walk, and he’s also got several Fitness Magazine workouts as well.  You can download from his site or through iTunes.  While he does sell workout mixes, the podcasts are free, there are many to choose from and he puts out new ones often.  He also has several workout series featured in Fitness Magazine – these tend to be shorter, interval workouts – my favorite kind.

Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone is a completely delightful blog and fitness podcast led by Carla (MizFit) from Austin, TX and Shauna (The Amazing Adventures of DietGirl) , an Australian living in Scotland.  They put out a new episode every 3 weeks and I jump up and down with glee when the new episodes come out – once every 3 weeks.  Both Carla and Shauna are so funny and likable.  Their podcast is full of great useful fitness info and they always have interesting guests.

This ought to keep your busy for a while – happy listening!

So this seems to be my time for Letting Go. 

While I’m all over the idea of letting go of clutter, trimming my social schedule to only things I really want to do and buying only what I truly need – I like these things to be on my terms.  My idea.  When I say so.

I’ll back up a few months first to May – when I read this post by Lisa Belkin, Cluttered Fridge Doors, Cluttered Lives I honed right in on that part about a cluttered refrigerator door being an indicator of a cluttered family life.  I looked at my own fridge – completely covered with papers, invites, advertisement magnets, old school announcements, whatnot – and took it ALL off.  My life did feel overwhelmingly full with activities, events, obligations so I was willing to do whatever I could to ease that feeling, even if it felt like a silly way to get my message out to the Universe.  I liked the empty fridge doors immediately — the kitchen instantly looked cleaner, neater, simpler.

Little did I know how much less full my life was about to become.

The first is an expected Letting Go – my oldest child, Emily, is beginning college this week.  I am in Memphis right now helping her get settled in her new dorm room.  It’s an exciting time – she is attending a wonderful private art college on full scholarship.  I’ve always encouraged her to consider an out-of-state college and this sounded like a great idea…until it actually happened. Now she’ll be 6 hours from home and we’ll only see her at the big holidays and summer.  She’s grown up to be a fantastic, and sensible, kid – so I will do my best not to worry too much, but it’s starting to hit me that she will be living someplace else.  What was I thinking?

The second Letting Go was not expected, nor as easy to accept.  My 14 year old daughter, Kelly, decided this summer that she would like to try living with her father.  Who lives in another state.  She was just a year old when her father and I divorced, and while he’s been involved in her life, he moved out of state a few years ago and between the distance and the difficulties in communicating with any teenager, their relationship is just not as close as it once was.  She visited him for a few weeks this summer, apparently dropped enough hints that she’d like to live there and he offered her a chance to move in.  With the promise of a new school (and boys…she attended an all-girls private school here), an entire 2nd floor to herself, new bedroom furniture and a sparkly new big-city life, she was instantly smitten and I knew I could not compete.

Yes, I know I could have stopped this – and definitely considered doing just that.  I let her go though because she said she wanted a chance to get close to her dad.  She has lived with a wonderful stepfather since she was 3 years old but I know she’s always been sad about not having her own father around much.  He’s thrilled to have her there and I feel like I’ve been dumped after 13 years of being the real-life parent. 

She’s been gone nearly 2 weeks and is homesick already.  She’s also not so thrilled with the new school…yes, this makes me happy.  While I’m glad she can be close with her dad, I am sad for our family here.  So many people have told me stories of teen daughters doing this exact thing and all were back home within a year.  I would not be disappointed at all if this is how our story goes.  I’m ready to let go when she gets to college – not now though! 

In the meantime, I want to approach this the same way I approached my divorce from her father (a story all it’s own).  It was sudden, it was traumatic and after a few days of intense gut-wrenching sobbing, I decided that getting divorced was Not Going to Ruin My Life and I would Get Through This.  A year later I met my now-husband and I can honestly say that going through that heartbreaking time led me to a much better, more fuller life than I could have ever imagined. 

I’m hoping this time – and that awful day I put my not yet grown-up daughter on an airplane to go LIVE somewhere else – is a gift in disguise, a chance for us all to move into the next great phase. 

Meanwhile, we’re getting creative with ways to stay connected…Skype video calls are our new thing and I plan to cram as much into Priority Mail boxes as is humanly possible as I send care-packages to both girls.  Trying my best here to look at this as an adventure and not get caught up in the this-should-not-be-happening mindset.

*~*~*~*~*~*

A few days ago, I walked into my kitchen, noticed my still unadorned fridge doors and stopped short.  Didn’t I say I wanted to let go of some of the Too Much in my life?

Universe, this is not exactly what I had in mind.