Hope for the Future

I'm a soon-to-be-parent with a husband in school. We don't have a lot of loose change around, so in preparation for our little one to be arriving in August, we are choosing our baby products as prudently as possible.
Except there is one extravagance that I really would rather have around for completely selfish reasons: a jogging stroller. I already have a travel system, so really, a jogging stroller is totally unnecessary. It's for rich people, right? Or at least not destitute-types like we will be for another school year.
But there's this thing called Freecycle, which is a lot like craigslist except there is no buying or selling. It's just giving. People just offer things that they want to get rid of and people pick them up. How lovely! And people, like me, who want something they can't spend money on just ask for things for nothing in return, like spoiled, bratty children. It's a win-win.
So I've been keeping my eye out for jogging stroller ads, but you have to be extremely quick in responding to the ads if you want to get stuff. Competition is fierce. And after a while of doing that and reaping no reward, I just flat out asked if anyone had a jogging stroller laying around that needed a home. Sure enough, there was! Hoo-ah! And I picked it up! Double Hoo-ah!
That leads me to my next tip:

Tip #5: Give yourself another reason to run

I won't be running in the coming months, but by golly, I'll be jonesing to go running with a child in tow by the time I can.

I am still running (ish)

Mk, that was mostly a lie. About 3 percent was truth, so I'd call it a proverbial grey area cause I'm not rounding. I don't get up and work out a lot (*ahem* ever...), but it's okay because I have so many reasons not to. I'm basically off the hook. Right?

No, I'm not. And this leads me to my next tip, totally on the fly, but nonetheless full of little pearls of wisdom and awesomeness.

Tip 4: Repent!

I'm probably not going to up and run a 5K tomorrow, but since I got a big 'ol rush of energy a couple weeks ago, I decided to take my exercise routine up a notch. Meaning, I have to move around. I jogged out to my car in a parking lot yesterday, I'm considering that as counting, because now that I'm all out of the habit, that's a totally attainable level of activity. It was probably a full 30 seconds. Next time, I'll run circles around my car before I unlock it.

In all seriousness though, that rush of energy I got was so comforting. I thought I had permanently lost my zest for life and running, but if there is one thing that pregnancy has recently taught me, it's that even though you're not getting sick (like throwing up), you are still absolutely sick in your head. At least, that's the case with me. I was "touched". Luckily, the damage wasn't permanent.

But for all those fellow running-not-likers-who-wish-they-weren't, this also applies to nonpregnant people as well. May my shining example of change that has yet to occur be a beacon in this dark world of sleeping in and being all cozy in your pjs.