When I hit “publish” on Tuesday’s post, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Normally, I love to check in for comments on a post as soon as I have a few free minutes. But Tuesday, I waited for hours and hours because I was afraid that no one would comment… Or that the comments would include lots of verbal eye-rolling and “stop your whining” types of admonishments.

I knew I deserved it. I mean, I was whining all over the place about something that only I have control over.

But I’ve been feeling stuck. Frustrated. And it’s my blog, so I wanted to post my true feelings. Even if you were going to get irritated with me and tell me so.

Why did I ever doubt you, Internet?

You guys really came through for me, and I am so incredibly touched and inspired by your empathy and commiseration and helpful suggestions.

Every day this week, I’ve gone to the gym. I’ve done 30 minutes on the elliptical machine each day. And I know it’s a very small start, but it’s a start.

I’ve already implemented some of your suggestions:

–          I put my earphones and sneakers right next to the door so I have no excuse not to leave my apartment.

–          I put on my gym clothes immediately upon waking.

–          I’ve decided that 12:00 to 12:30 is Official Gym Time – no matter what. (I have a notion that once in a while, I won’t be able to keep this appointment. It’s the nature of my job. But damned if I’m not going to aim for it every day.)

–          I’m going to put my love for TV to good use and exercise during my favorite shows.

–          I’ve enlisted my husband. We decided that if he gets home before 6:30, we will go to the gym together – no questions asked. (Exercise is extra hard for him because he has such long hours.)

Most exciting, I’ve found an Accountability Partner – or, to be accurate, she found me! The lovely Anastasia of According to Anastasia and I are going to be fitness buddies. We live in different states, but that’s not going to stop us!

Every week, we’re going to email each other some fitness goals. We’re going to be each other’s cheerleader. We’re going to give each other a shoulder to whine on. (Possibly Anastasia doesn’t know what she’s gotten into.) We’re going to share fitness tips and easy, healthy recipes and techniques for keeping on track. And other stuff. Because I’m pretty much making this up as I’m going along.

But hey – we’re jumping right in, even if we don’t quite know how to swim! And I have a great feeling about this Internet.

That’s why we want to know if you want to join us!

I don’t know if we’d all do a big group email… Or if I’d put up some sort of fitness page here on the blog… But we welcome anyone who feels stuck… Anyone who wants to lose a few pounds…Anyone who wants to exercise more often… Anyone who wants to learn how to do 2,000 one-armed push-ups… Okay, possibly we won’t be THAT hard core.

What we want is to set up a little fitness support system where we have to report our progress and hold others accountable. In a friendly, warm manner of course – I mean, I had a bag of sour cream and onion Ruffles tonight, so I’m not going to yell at you if you slip every now and again. I’m thinking something like an email/blog post each week where we can all list our goals and whether we met the goals of the previous week… And then throughout the week, we can do little “check ups”…

I definitely don’t want this to be an all-consuming thing – just a quick and easy way to keep track of our progress, offer motivation, and get some techniques or support from each other.

I’m pumped. Especially because the next few months are bound to be full of delicious temptations to splurge and plenty of excuses to skip exercise. It’s going to be great to have someone besides myself know what I’m aiming for and help me keep pounding away at my goals.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, let me know in the comments or via email at LifeofaDoctorsWife [at] gmail. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Once Anastasia and I know how many people are interested, we’ll get the details hammered out.

In the meantime, thank you again, Internet. You guys constantly surprise me with your kindness and willingness to help.