sore

I exercise.  I know by looking at me, it is hard to believe, but I actually do.
I do it for health and  I do it so that I will be healthy for my husband and children.
I would do it to lose weight, but apparently that doesn't work for me.
For instance, a few months ago, for at least 6 weeks straight and it might have been longer, I walked/ellipticaled/exercised for 1.5 hrs a day at least 4 days a week.  Not one pound lost!  Not one!  However, towards the end of that 6 weeks, my triglycerides were down 30 points from a year ago.  They aren't really high now, but they were slightly elevated before.  And that was my only abnormal lab.
I had been doing the MOVE series off www.dailyburn.com .  This is a website I LOVE!. 
Joining a gym is out for us.  It costs too much money and I just don't have 2 hrs a day to devote to driving there, working out, extra shower, driving home, etc. and I know I just wouldn't want to leave the family every night to go work out, IF I could even fit it into my schedule.
I saw an article about a month ago and I don't remember where, so I can't link to it.  But it made a point that cardio is good, but you have to have weight training to build muscle to lose weight.   The article also said that if you go to a gym, the overweight people are trudging along on the ellipticals, treadmills, etc, while the ripped, thin people are on the weights. Hmm!  He did have a point. 
And when I was thin in college, I did lift weights, (in addition to playing every intramural sport, running, and going to the fitness center almost daily)
There is  a section on Daily Burn that is call Tactical Body Weight Training or TBT. Aaron had been doing these, but I hadn't.  It is an intense workout where you use your weight as the weight to build muscle. I have been doing it at least 4 weeks.  I could tell a difference in my arm strength after two weeks.  I can really tell a difference after 4 weeks.  Have I lost weight.?  Why no, of course not, that would be too typically human to exercise and lose weight. I have to be atypical.
But I do like feeling stronger.  My legs have always been my strongest.  Seriously, before I even started this I could do 10 squats with Aaron on my back.  And carry Aaron on my back up the stairs without breaking  a sweat.  ( I know, weird ways to occupy ourselves) He weighs 155.
But I can tell a difference with my legs too.
A huge plus that I was not expecting...
About a year ago, my calves, ankles and feet started swelling.  not too bad, and probably not even enough that a person that didn't know what my legs looked like before would notice.  But I noticed. It would be really bad after working 12 hour shifts. I know some of that is normal, to swell a little.  My doctor went ahead and did an Echocardiogram to rule out heart issues.  Heart was normal!  So she put me on this little diuretic pill. Which I did not want to take, but I do.
It was dependent edema, caused by gravity.   For instance, the week I had bronchitis, my legs were the smallest they had been in months. no swelling at all because I had been in bed and not on my feet.
Well, back to the benefit of this weight training exercises... I started noticing that my ankles and feet were smaller.  All this building of calf muscles is promoting better circulation in my legs and I have even skipped my pills a few times because I didn't need them. Soon, I expect I can throw that prescription away!
All this to say that I am sore.  I had a weird 2 day summer cold last week, couldn't exercise, then I worked 2 12 hr shifts, which exhaust me, had a headache one day and was just plain lazy another, which all ended in me skipping a week of TBT.  I started back two days ago. I hadn't lost all my strength, but OH am I sore.  But it is a good sore, that perhaps I will work out today.