I am a girl, and we girls sometimes have a nasty little thing called low self-esteem and a lot of pressure to stay thin and in shape (I blame the media! I blame the media!). I am not one of the lucky few who naturally has a metabolism that goes 3614363 miles an hour. So in order to stay relatively happy with how I look, I have to exercise.

During school, I got really good at it. I was running every day, and then swimming regularly when the snow hit. But then Thanksgiving struck, and finals followed, and I found myself with absolutely no time to exercise. And shortly after returning home to Marquette, I began to feel fat and lazy and a whole lot worse. Lack of exercise (especially after getting used to it) will do that to you.

Today I learned that the body has incredible memory.

We usually refer that memory as “habit”. But when we talk about habits, it’s usually something we do regularly. In this case, I’m talking more of not doing something for a long time — but still being able to do it just as easily whenever you start again.

In order to get back into my exercise routine (so I would quit feeling fat and feeling sick, since I was starting to catch a cold), I went to the Dome today to run laps. I’m pretty laid-back when it comes to running — I don’t need a treadmill, I don’t need a fancy lane-divided track, I don’t need $5,000 shoes. Just gimme loose pants, my music and a warm long place.

And I was thrilled to find that my body hadn’t quit on me. When I first started running over the summer, I was atrocious — I’d go five minutes and collapse. But my endurance has improved shockingly over a very short span of just a few months (this coming from someone who once HATED running!). I got back into stride almost instantly and pulled an easy two miles before I had to stop for water and breath.

Of course, I’ll be sore tomorrow. After all, I haven’t run in over a month. But it was reassuring to know my body hadn’t quit on me, and still remembered how to get into stride, take it easy, and keep a measured breath. Yay!

There is this wonderful little website tool that I’m sure plenty of you already know about called StumbleUpon. You basically click a button and you get a random website catered to your interests. It’s a good solution for general boredom and has taught me a lot of random stuff in the past, like the fact that I can take on 25 Kindergardeners in a fight or that someone invented a bed that hangs from the ceiling like a swing.

Today, StumbleUpon lead me to this brief but interesting little website…

Today I learned that my body gets about 37 miles to the gallon.

I’m going to go ahead and assume that this is a good thing, since Hybrid cars are pretty cool and 38 miles per gallon is a lot. The lesson here, it would appear, is that I am in fact in good health.

The questions all had to do with various health options, things like “Do you smoke?” “How often do you exercise?” and “What’s your diet like?” Of course I answered them all honestly when I went through the first time, but I was curious to see what aspects of your life affected your health more than others. If you smoke, but still exercise regularly and have a good diet, how does that affect your MPG? What if you’re asthmatic but don’t smoke? So I went back and tweaked a few of my answers to judge my results.

I answered every question, at first, with the worst possible answer. Yes, I’m obese, diabetic, over 55 years old and I eat fast food on a regular basis. The result was 2.5 MPG, or the equivilent of a semi-truck. Then I tried the best possible answers. 45.5 MPG, which would be a motorcycle. Assuming I got all the answers right, I guess those are our two extremes. This brings up another interesting point, though — which body type is considered healthiest? Slim/slender? Muscular? Average?

So what results are you guys getting?