by Julie Spaur

Created on: April 09, 2009

A terribly frustrating thing in my personal life is the fact that as I get older, I keep getting heavier and more out of shape. It is getting out of control. I find myself thinking "All I have to do is work out and eat better and I'll lose weight," but I just keep not seeming to find the time to do it.

This week, however, I had a minor wake up call about the importance of starting to take care of myself NOW. Long story short, I realized that since I have at least 20 more years before I can retire, it would not be beneficial to me or my family if I were to suddenly become disabled and not be able to work anymore due to my blatant disregard for my health.

Working out, then, has become a main part of my caring-for-myself-now project. I am so out of shape that just walking or gentle marching in place will be good for starters, that's how sad it is. My chosen attire for working out is neither pants nor shorts, but a compromise of both. Yes, you guessed it, I choose Capri pants for working out in. Capri pants are longer than shorts but shorter than pants. They seem to be a bit closer to pants than shorts, which is why I voted for pants in the debate .

I get TOO hot wearing pants. Having extra padding, IE body fat, I'm always the one saying "Wow, it's
hot in here," when everyone else is wearing sweaters and their hands are turning blue.

Sadly, however, if I wear shorts, aside from the scare it would cause everyone to see my thighs jiggling like Jello while I attempted to jog, it causes quite a bit of discomfort. Wearing shorts if your thighs are as big as mine presents two major problems.
One, they ride up and I'm constantly trying to reposition them to the correct position, (which looks a lot like I'm picking at my behind,) and two, the friction that my thighs create from rubbing together could probably cause a small fire if I had enough stamina to work out longer than 5 minutes at a time. That friction also causes a lovely rash that takes days to go away, making walking difficult at best even when I have gone back to wearing pants.

I was so happy when Capri's came back in style a number of years ago. They are so versatile, the perfect piece of clothing for us larger bodied souls. There are many different choices of the length, from just under the knee to just above the ankle. There are tight Capri's and baggy Capri's, and they are made out of various types of material, such as linen, cotton, polyester, even denim.
Capri pants are a dream garment for me, I wear dressy ones to work in the summer and casual ones at home around the house. Now I will add athletic ones to my wardrobe for workout wear.

So now I'm thinking I have something to try and work towards in my workouts, thanks to Helium. If I can stay true to my new goal to lose weight and get in shape, maybe if this debate is revisited in a year or two, I can change my vote to shorts!

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