I digress. A lot.

Call it a sickness, but I can't tell one story without telling the pre-story first.

Lucky for you (my three lovely readers), this means lots of ramblings for you to read.

Unlucky for you, I lack a camera, so my rambling words aren't broken up with nice photos for you to rest your eyes upon for a second.

Lucky for you, once upon a time I was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper, so I know about breaking up paragraphs into two to three sentences for reading with ease.

Unlucky for you, explaining all of this resulted in you reading more ramblings...and I haven't even gotten close to the point of this post!

Just so you know, in case I never get around to it, the point of this is to talk about my new workout regimen. If I forget to talk about it, feel free to yell at me in the comments section.

I feel like Ted in How I Met Your Mother for saying this, but before I tell you that story, I really do need to tell you this story.

I just returned home from a lovely weekend in Portland. My younger sister (she's 18) and I made the two-hour drive on Saturday to visit our cousin (she's 16) for a highly-anticipated sleepover.

Clearly this warrants another story...this summer we spent a lot of time together. We were inseparable for 10 days in Manhattan Beach, we saw each other a mere two weeks later for the annual family camp out, and then we saw her a week after that for a trip to the coast.

I'm pretty sure I spent more time sharing a bed with her this summer than I did sleeping alone. That's a lie. But it feels true! She and I moved past our days of having cover-tugging battles all night long to having cousin snuggle love all night long...I really had trouble sleeping alone after our Manhattan Beach trip!

But I digress.

Upon realizing (on August 22) that we wouldn't see each other again until the high school state cross country meet (November 6), we decided that would be too much time apart. We decided to orchestrate a sleepover on one of her free weekend's before my sister and I have to start classes...hello, this weekend!

After getting off to a late start on Saturday due to my sister's visit to Urgent Care (nothing too serious, her earache ended up being caused by a canker sore on her throat...weird, right?), we finally made it to our cousin's house in Aloha by 3:00.

From there, we took our bags to our grandma's house in Beaverton, the site of the sleepover (my cousin's house is in the middle of a remodel, and there isn't a kitchen...this is a problem at sleepovers. Especially when pancakes are required in the morning for breakfast).

After leaving a note to our grandma explaining our whereabouts (we showed up unannounced and didn't want her to be alarmed by the mess of clothes we left all over the front room), we set off for the MAX station.

We had a brief encounter with an interesting stranger, in which he gave us the following advice: "When you meet Prince Charming, don't let him lead you into the ocean because when you get bit by a shark it's for life. An arm and a leg. You don't want to live with that."

Thank you, kind stranger. We'll take that to heart.

We hopped on the MAX and wandered Portland for awhile, making a stop at Buffalo Exchange and Powell's, before our cousin (the cousin we were with's older brother) came and picked us up and took him to his house.

He cooked us a fantastic dinner of the most delicious paninis we'd ever had (jury's still out on whether that was because of how hungry we were or because they were just that good), then took us to a MAX station for our ride home.

We then went to a Safeway and spent a good 15 minutes debating what flavor and brand of ice cream we should get (we settled on the store brand's "Extreme Moose Tracks", which was a good choice), then spent another 10 minutes deciding what other snack foods we wanted (we picked Pirate's Booty and cookie dough). We grabbed a movie at a Redbox on our way home, then finally got back to our grandma's.

We proceeded to eat our weight in junk food and watch our movie, all the while perusing my grandma's scrapbook...she just scrapbooked this summer's events (which included two family weddings), so we were anxious to see what the pages looked like (read: how many pictures we were in, and how we looked in said pictures).

Remind me to get back to the picture I found that inspired my workout regimen. I feel compelled to finish the story about the rest of the weekend...stick around, it might amuse you.

Not because it's amusing. Maybe you're easily amused and just like to read my ramblings. I won't judge you if you do. I'll thank you, though!

After snuggling the night away, we woke up and went to breakfast with my grandma (how perfect was it that today is Grandparent's Day?!). Next, Grandma took us to the zoo, where my cousin played tour guide (she's a Zoo Teen volunteer during the summer).

I fell in love with naked mole rats all over again.

Try to convince me they're ugly.

I dare you.

We went and had a quick visit with another cousin and aunt and uncle before heading back to Grandma's for a late lunch before my sister and I hit the road for home.

It was a lovely weekend.

I love my family. Don't worry - my cousin and I will be reunited on October 10 for the Tyler Hilton concert. Yes, he's coming to town again. I am so excited. Again.

If you want to read about the second time I saw him (the first time I blogged about him), check it out here.

What a pretty man. With a pretty voice. I'm dying, seriously.

Anyway. I'm getting to the point here.

We looked at my grandma's scrapbook pages from our time in Manhattan Beach, and this is what I saw:

That's me in the swimsuit. Let me address a few things:

Yes, I know the dangers of skin cancer. Yes, I wear sunscreen (SPF 45 and 55 the entire trip). Yes, I am blessed with the skin of my father, who is of a Polynesian/Hawaiian bloodline. No, I don't know why I'm so excited about eating that apple. No, those party cups are (probably) not all filled with alcoholic beverages.

What struck me about this photo was the fact that I don't look like this anymore.

This was two months ago, and apparently I was doing a much better job of maintaining my fitness. This photo inspired me to get my butt back in gear and get in shape.

I don't look that different, but I have lost a lot of tone. (By the way, I'm not looking for any sympathy or anything of the sort. I'm definitely not one of "those" girls.) But I have lost a lot of tone and definition, and my stomach doesn't look like that.

So tonight, I decided that instead of complaining about it, I would do something about it.

I'm normally an active girl, but the lack of a gym (I don't belong to one at home, and just have access to one while at school) makes me sluggish...for some reason, I can work out for much longer on ellipticals and treadmills than I can while running outside.

I don't like it, but that's the way it is.

Despite this, tonight I went for a two mile run, did 100 lunges, 50 squats, plus a whole bunch of sit-ups and push-ups. (I also wandered the zoo for two hours today, which definitely got me some exercise.) On tonight's run I discovered that my favorite time to run is at dusk - for some reason I have more patience with it and get less bored.

That photo showed me not only what I used to look like, but what I can look like. And that's all the motivation I need to get myself moving again...which I will be doing every day this week (and in the coming weeks), one way or another.

What motivates you? (Besides reaching the end of this post. Congratulations, you did it! And I am so happy you did. But probably not as happy as you are.)

♥ abigail