I am not ashamed. Okay, maybe just a little.

This may shock you, but I am not an exercising fiend. In fact, the most exercise I usually get is when I, um, walk to the library a few times a week. Which is across the street from our apartment. Which would only take 2 minutes to get there if I jaywalked. (But, as a law abiding citizen, I walk all the way down to the stoplight and all the way up to the library, so it takes more like 10 minutes each way. Go me.)

ANYway, I've been watching The Biggest Loser as of late, and as such, I've been feeling like maybe I should stop sitting around eating bon bons (read: Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies) and start exercising some more. And by "some more" I clearly mean "period."

Every now and again I go through these phases where I'll start running outside several times a week to get my exercise in. But seeing as how the temperature has been hovering around freeze-your-buns-off degrees (I know, I'm a whanny), it hasn't really been a tempting option.

What has been an option, however, are exercise videos.

My mom used to be (still is?) really into aerobic exercise videos. She would get up ridiculously early to work out before getting ready for the day. My sisters and I used to tease her about some of her video choices. Then, once upon a time, my sisters and I joined my mom in an ab workout routine. There we were, groaning in agony (okay, maybe I was the only one groaning), when my dad came in with a camera and started taking pictures of us.

We were not amused.

Fast forward a few years. As a sophomore in college, I had some roommates who wanted to do some more ab workouts (but this time, they were on DVD!). We'd get together in the evenings and I, always keeping up with tradition, would groan in agony as we completed them. One time, we decided we wanted to lift weights. Lacking weights, we used bottles of water and cans of refried beans. (I tried finding the picture we took with our makeshift weights for your viewing pleasure, but was unsuccessful.)

As you can see, I'm no stranger to workout videos. I'm just a stranger to working out consistently.

(I promise I'm getting to the point eventually.)

So I had decided that I need to start working out with some fun, aerobic type DVD. I did a little research online, wrote down the call number of the DVD I wanted, walked down to the library, and checked out . . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

(Cue the horror music.)

I know, I know. Judge away. In fact, I almost lost my nerve to check it out when I saw the label "Staff help at checkout may be necessary for this item." I didn't want some librarian to know I was actually planning to -- gulp -- "Sweat to the Oldies" with Richard Simmons! But, I decided I would at least try to use the self check out with this vibrant DVD. If it didn't work, I reasoned, I could put it back on the shelf and get a more respectable workout DVD instead.

Thank my lucky stars, I was successful. And then I immediately shoved it into my purse so the other library patrons wouldn't see.

And when I got home and started the DVD, you better believe I grinned like a silly idiot for the first five minutes of the warm up.