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I was 38 when I started exercising.
That’s right, 38.
My exercise history reads like a bad report card.
Everything fitness-oriented was mandatory and completed by the skin of my teeth.
The President’s Physical Fitness Test was my Everest.
Each year in elementary school, as the day drew nearer, I would plot my illnesses.
“My fever must be high to the point of danger.
I probably have scurvy,” I’d tell my mom.
My parents never fell for it, and the day usually culminated in tears and terrible sit-ups.
I made it through my unathletic 20s like any other unathletic twentysomething.
In my 30s, it all started to catch up with me.
I contracted a new and frankly awful syndrome known to scientists as “metabolism.”
So I did what anyone would do.
I cried a bunch and cursed a universe that would not let me fit into my clothes.
But then, I joined a gym.
I never went, but I did join.
After my second child, I tried yoga, Spinning, kickboxinganything where you could justgorather than join.
But for me, yoga and Spinning didn’t work.
I didn’t like the talking and the preaching.
I just wanted to work out.
Well, I didn’t want to, but I needed to.
There was Tracy, talking about transformation and tiny muscle groups and Gwyneth.
It didn’t hurt that she looked amazing.
I made the leap.
And reader, it changed my life.
Still, my first class was a challenge.
I stood there while two of the hottest women on earth measured me and weighed me and photographed me.
It seemed like the most humiliating thing in the world.
Until I started dancing.
To say that I am bad at dancing is an understatement.
I was terrible, but no one cared, probably because they were sweating too much to notice.
The best part: The trainers don’t talk.
Last year, we started bringing a Tracy trainer to the set ofGirls.
It’s four years later and I am still committed.
When people used to tell me they enjoyed exercising, I secretly thought they were lying.
Now I know better.
I have found my home.
Top, Sweats Norma Kamali, $125; Shop.NormaKamali.com.
Tights, $140;SweatyBetty.com
Stylist, Lida Moore Musso.
Hair and Makeup, Allison Brooke for Kevyn Aucoin.
Photo Credit: Justin Steele
