Recently, my trainer posted his Top 100 Reasons to Exercise on this blog.  And, everything he said is true.  Exercising is good for bone density and glucose tolerance and productivity at work, but with a few exceptions (like #4), he missed most of the reasons why I am currently exercising.

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you will see that I’m not unlike a lot of American women.  I let my love for food, my distaste for athletics, and my sedentary lifestyle creep up on me until I was so fat and out of shape I didn’t even recognize myself.  At 38, I decided to begin a quest to return to fit and fabulous by the age of 40.  That said, here are the top reasons why I exercise:

1.  Because I want my wedding band to be loose enough so that I can wear it for more than two hours without cutting off my circulation.

2.  So that my I can fit back into 90% of my wardrobe.

3.  Because I want to sit in one of those god-awful cheap white plastic lawn chairs without fear that it will stay stuck to my butt when I decide to get up.

4.  So that I can have one chin instead of two.

5.  So that I can shop for clothes that I love, not clothes that fit.

6.  So that strangers will not inquire about my due date when I’m not really expecting.

7.  Because I want to know if looking good really is the best revenge.

8.  Because I want to wear my wedding dress again.

9.  Because I want my husband to be able to pick me up without risking a hernia.

10.  Because I refuse to eat fake cheese and no fat sour cream.

11.  Because I want to be in shape for knocking the adventurous items off of my bucket list:  a bicycle tour in Europe, learning how to ski, trying horseback riding and hang gliding too.

12.  So that my outside matches my inside.

13.  Because I’m tired of wearing black–it’s really not my color.

14.  Because I want to be better at yoga.

15.  So that I won’t just be another ‘pretty face’  (For years I’ve owned a magnet of a 1950’s girl kneeling at her bedside, saying her evening prayers.  It says:  Dear God, Thank you for the pretty face, but the fat ass has got to go!”  Amen!)

16.  So I can run a big race.  I used to think a marathon or a half-marathon, but after walking my first 5k, I think I’ll settle for running one of those first.

17.  So that I can live long enough to be one of those sprightly, sassy granny types.

18.  Because I want to feel energetic, fit and healthy.

19.  Because I don’t want people to describe me as ‘fat’.

20.  Because I’d like my body fat percentage to be lower than the amount of fat in Brie cheese.

21.  Because I’d like to watch The Biggest Loser without thinking that I could be a candidate for the show.

22.  So that I can wear courdoroy pants without worrying about a friction fire between my thighs.

23.  So that I will believe my husband’s compliments and not wonder if he’s been smoking crack.

24.  Because I’d like to have the confidence to wear sleeveless dresses.

25.  So that I can be a strong woman in every sense of the word.

26.  So that my weight and my size take up less mental space too.

27.  So that I can ham it up for the cameras.

28.  So that I can get up gracefully after sitting on the floor.

29.  So that my options for knee-high and thigh-high boots extend beyond fishing waders.

30.  So that I will one day look and feel fabulous at the same time.