Exercise As An Outlet

I had planned to share some thoughts I had about my recent weight gain and the fear that has slowly crept in to my brain over the last week.  But sadly, that will have to wait.

Tonight, my Mom, my son, and I went out to pick up some food and stop by a couple of stores.  Right before leaving, I was looking for some tickets in my laptop case and in the process ended up setting a pile of money and papers on the couch.  This was the money I have collected so far for our fantasy football league at work. 

To give you a little more background to this story, my son's dog, Duke, has started to chew up tissues and papers out of our garbage cans when we leave the house.  I don't think he is looking for anything in particular.  I just think he is pissed off that we are leaving him at home.  This started a couple of months ago and has gotten steadily worse. 

In addition, my son has recently talked about possibly moving out of the house in to a place with some friends.  After tonight, I wish he and Duke would have made the move a little sooner!

When we walked in the door, Niko, who was a few steps ahead of me, started to yell at his Siberian shredding machine.  While Niko has gotten annoyed before, there was an elevated tone to his voice this time.  I wasn't sure what Duke had done, but it seemed worse than before.  And then, I walked around the corner and saw the pile of shredded bills on the floor near the couch.  Duke had chewed, shredded and consumed hundreds of dollars!  I wanted to cry.  I guess I still kind of want to cry four hours later.

We pieced together a couple of bills and then my anxiety started building.  I am a calmer man now than I was fifteen years ago.  Back then, I may have beaten the crap out of that dog.  Tonight, I gave him a couple of smacks on the rear end and then decided I needed to get out of the house. 

So, I took off to the gym for some stress relief.  And, while I can't say that I came back in a jovial mood, my mood improved enough that I no longer felt like harming Duke... though he still hasn't come in from the back yard!  The walk on the treadmill felt good.  It definitely relieved some of my stress.  Not all of it.  But, I came home in a better place than when I left.

When I got back, I found that my Mom and Niko had spent some time on the puzzle that was my shredded fantasy football funds.  Not sure how the reclamation project will go and I just don't know what I will end up getting back.  I know there is at least a couple of hundred dollars that have too many missing pieces for us to get anything out of them.  Hopefully, some of the other pieces will have enough parts to convince someone at a bank or the US Treasury Department to replace them.  I think the hardest part of this little episode is that I don't even play fantasy football.  I still run the league because I like to be involved.  But, after about 15 years of playing, I found myself a little burned out and I have taken the last two years off.  So now, my rather low-paying job... and by low I mean $0... as commissioner has now just cost me money.  Oh well.  I would have been even more stressed if I was out 300+ dollars and also still weighed 300+ pounds!

Here's to the power of exercise and the other benefits it provides beyond just losing weight...