It took a lot of procrastinating to get here

5:01am - alarm clock goes off. I fumble in the dark for the shorts, tee, socks and sports bra I laid out last night.

5:20am - I am face to face with The Stairmaster.

5:30am - I think to myself, "I've been on this thing 10 minutes, I should probably stop for a bit and stretch my legs." (more procrastinating!) So I feel the burn a little more as I stretch my quads then I am back at it.

5:34am - I am out of breath and start breathing in the Lamaze fashion. I look around at the two middle-aged ladies huffing and puffing in the next row of ellipticals. I decide to try to convince myself I should step to the beat of Kamera's Lies to keep my mind off the fact that I am struggling.

5:45am - I cut the 40 minute Stairmaster session to 25 minutes and head to the row of bike machines where I spend the next 30 minutes wondering how the hell working out got so hard.

6:15am - I move on to weights and stretches and start to feel like my old self.

Apparently the trick is consistency. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I guess I'll just have to cope with my borderline anaphylactic reaction to cardio if I'm to fit into my skinny jeans and party dresses for wedding season.