I Eat Treadmills for Lunch

I overslept this morning. (Is anyone shocked?) I meant to wake up early to run outside, but it didn’t happen, so I went to the gym at lunch to rock three miles on the treadmill. They were supposed to be “easy,” but I get bored on the treadmill, so I ended up bumping up the speed to 6.8 by the last mile. Oops.

I seem to get a bunch of questions any time I work out at lunch, so here’s how I do it.

1. Grab gym clothes, look both ways and furtively sneak out. I don’t know why, but working out at lunch always makes me feel guilty. (I also think this is a female thing–I was talking with a male and female coworker with this the other day and the female said she felt guilty about it, the male thought we were crazy.)

2. Power-walk to the gym. Knock over small children if you have to.

3. Take your clothes off as quickly as possible. It helps if you practice this at home, preferably not alone.

4. Plan a short workout. If you are set on taking no more than an hour (which I am), you probably can’t work out for more than 30 minutes. Make the 30 minutes count! Do intervals or another hard workout. If you are planning a longer workout, you will be frustrated when you have to cut it short. Alternately, take a class and sneak out early.

4. Don’t wear much makeup in the morning. The less makeup you’re wearing, the less makeup you have to wash off/sweat off.

5. Rock as high and loose a ponytail as you can to avoid hair elastic lines.

6. If you’re choosing between cutting your workout short and stretching, always stretch. I’d rather have a shorter workout than injure myself. I worship hard at the temple of stretching. (Although my tight leggies beg to differ.)

7. Shower. Don’t wash your hair, and blow-dry the sweat out of your hair. (What can I say? I keep it classy.)

8. Go back to work and refuel.